


Bewitched, Bothered, and Devoured

by Wincesteriffic Kaz (Disasteriffic_Kaz)



Series: By Your Command [11]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: BDSM, Bottom Sam, Case Fic, Dom/sub, Established Relationship, Flogging, Frottage, Hurt Dean, Hurt Sam, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Orgasm Delay, Rimming, Spanking, Top Dean, Wincest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-03
Updated: 2017-04-16
Packaged: 2018-07-12 01:20:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 9
Words: 48,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7078606
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Disasteriffic_Kaz/pseuds/Wincesteriffic%20Kaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An ancient evil surfaces and the Winchesters must rely only on each other in a town of unwitting killers where anyone or everyone could be out to get them. Set in season 2 Dean/Sam 11th in the 'BYC Verse'</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Cookies! I get cookies for not pulling a cliffie right off! HA! It's nice to be back in the BYC verse again! I was waiting until the right 'hunt' tickled me for the boys and this one got all the creative juices flowing. Also, yeah I know. I hate summaries. XD
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed. 
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

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**Chapter 1**

Dean scrubbed a hand down his face, looking up at the weather-beaten house before them and blew out a heavy breath. "Are we really gonna do this?" He wiped his sweaty palms against his thighs and could feel his heart ready to pound out of his chest.

"I don't know." Sam rolled tension out of his shoulders and shook his head nervously. He was sweating and his skin was actually beginning to itch with the tension. "I don't feel good about this."

"This is a bad idea. We're not ready for this." Dean nodded his head and cleared his throat, feeling his nerves jumping and itching with fear. "So not ready for this."

"We have to do it sometime." Sam rolled his eyes at himself and Dean. "We're hunters, Dean. We don't just walk away from the scary shit."

Dean blew out another, louder breath and groaned. "I know, man. But it's Bobby! And he fucking knows we're, you know, fucking!" He threw his arms out at the house they had practically grown up in and turned to look at his brother. "How are we even gonna look at him?"

Sam put a hand on his big brother's shoulder and gave him a gentle push toward the stairs. "We have to do it. Come on, before he comes looking for us." He let his hand fall awkwardly from Dean's shoulder as they walked up the stairs and knew somehow that Bobby was watching them.

"Feel like I just got caught on the couch with Rhonda Hurley," Dean grumbled. "'Course, at least Rhonda Hurley wasn't my sister." He pulled the screen door open. "Ladies first."

"Bite me, Dean." Sam elbowed his brother in the gut on his way past. He stumbled to a stop in the hall, faced with Bobby standing in the kitchen with a cup of coffee and a highly amused look on his face. "Hey, uh, Bobby."

Bobby nodded and had to work to smother the laughter at the expression on his boys' faces. "Thought you girls were gonna stand out there all day." He rolled his eyes at the sheepish expression on both boys' faces and snorted. "Come on. Grab some coffee." He nodded to the whiskey bottle on the counter. "Put some Irish in it and let's have the most uncomfortable conversation of my whole damn, adult life."

"Oh, man." Dean felt his face redden as Bobby went past him into the living room. He stood next to his brother while Sam dutifully poured two cups of coffee. "I take it back," he hissed in Sam's ear. "We run now, he'll never catch us."

Sam was surprised into a laugh. He dumped whiskey liberally into both mugs, making sure the coffee was only providing color at that point, and handed one to Dean. "Like pulling off a band-aid. We can do this."

Dean took a hefty swallow from his mug and then coughed and sputtered his way into the living room behind Sam. He reached out a slapped a hand up the back of his brother's head. "Supposed to put coffee in here too, jackass!"

Bobby laughed. He shook his head fondly and sat behind his desk. "Alright. Never thought I'd be havin' this conversation." He adjusted his ball cap self-consciously and watched his boys fidget and the way they stood uncomfortably apart like they were afraid suddenly to be too close with him in the room. "I meant it when I said it was alright. I knew you boys were headin' down this particular path a long time ago."

"How long?" Sam asked, curious in spite of his discomfort.

Bobby snorted a laugh. "Somewhere in your teens, the both of ya'."

Dean stared and sat down on the couch with a thump. "Bullshit. We didn't even know 'til…"

"Didn't take a genius to see the way you two went all moon-eyed over each other when you figured the other one wasn't lookin'." He nodded at the twin looks of horror on their faces. "Don't worry. Pretty sure I'm the only one who ever had an idea. No way your daddy had a clue or…"

"He'd have locked my ass up after shooting me and taken Sam somewhere I'd never find him. Yeah." Dean shook his head and looked over at his brother, sharing a look expressing the nightmare of that scenario for just a moment before he closed his eyes and then looked back to Bobby. "I can't believe you're just, you know, cool with this." He waved a hand between him and Sam. "Us."

Bobby shrugged. "It was bit weird getting used to the idea, but you're both consentin' adults. What you do on your time ain't none of my business long's it ain't hurtin' anyone. Figure you two are old enough to decide who you wanna bump uglies with, even if it's each other."

Sam groaned. He quickly drank down the rest of his hundred-proof coffee and then covered his face. "Oh, my God."

Dean laughed and felt some of the tension flow out of him on a wave of relief. He slumped back into the couch and shook his head. "Holy crap."

"Besides," Bobby leaned back in his chair and smiled. "It ain't like incest has always been a taboo anyway. That's just modern morality talkin' there, and I'm sure God's got better things to do than thump a couple knucklehead brothers for bein' happy with each other." He chuckled. "Assumin' he's even up there, and I got my doubts."

Sam stared at Bobby, still feeling shock sweeping through him that the man was actually alright with their relationship, or at least he appeared to be. He couldn't help but wonder if Bobby was just saying that to keep things from being awkward. "Bobby, you…"

"Sam." Bobby had no trouble reading Sam's expressive face. He'd been doing it since the kid was two years old and could see the fear now. He smiled. "I told you before, when you were hunting the cambion, it's alright. Swear it, kid."

Sam nodded and gave an uncomfortable smile. "Sorry. It's just… never thought we'd be having this discussion with, you know, anyone."

Dean chuckled. "Yeah. It's a little weird." He caught the look on his brother's face and rolled his eyes. "Ok, it's a lot weird, and I'm probably gonna freak out about it later."

"Freak out again, you mean." Sam smirked and took the punch to his arm with an amused grunt, looking at Bobby. "He turned the car around twice before we got here. I had to talk him down."

"Did not."

"Did too."

"Bitch."

"Boys!" Bobby called above their voices and couldn't stop the laugh from bubbling up. Their behavior was why he had no problem with them being together; no matter what their relationship, they were still and always would be, brothers. "Now, go get your bags. You know where your room is." He stood and downed the rest of his coffee. "I'm gonna get some dinner goin' while you two settle in. Got steaks and potatas." He looked over at Sam with a grin. "And yeah, Sam. I got salad too."

Sam laughed. "Thanks, Bobby." He rose and pulled Dean with him. "Come on."

"You think I can walk after drinkin' your coffee-colored whiskey?" Dean grinned and followed his brother back outside. He opened the trunk and leaned against it with a sigh. "That… was actually less painful than I thought it was going to be."

Sam pulled his bag out and gave a little shudder. "I can't decide if I'm more freaked out because he knows we have sex or because he's knows I'm the, you know, the submissive one."

Dean's eyes went wide at that and his face paled. "You TOLD him that?" He was horrified all over again to realize Bobby knew just how inventive their sex lives were.

"What? No!" Sam raised his hands defensively. "It was the cambion! Bobby said that's why it chose to feed from me instead of you." He calmed a little and smirked at his brother. "Doesn't like its food all toppy and ego-happy."

"Toppy?" Dean's brows flew up. He grabbed Sam before his brother could back away and shoved him backwards into the open trunk. Before Sam could protest, Dean crushed their mouths together and licked his way inside Sam like he owned him. He dug his fingers into the cheeks of Sam's ass through his jeans, rubbing their dicks together through the denim and only relented when Sam let out a breathless whimper between his lips. Dean leaned back, breathless himself, to grin at the slightly glazed look in Sam's eyes.

"Jerk," Sam panted with a soft laugh. He raked his fingernails down Dean's back so his brother shivered and licked his lips. "You know, Bobby could look out the kitchen window and see this." He laughed aloud as his words had the desired effect and Dean let go of him like his hands had been burnt, stumbling back a few steps.

"Low, Sammy. That's low." Dean slapped his brother's ass with a loud 'crack' as he danced away from him.

Sam yelped and rubbed a hand over his backside as he marched up the steps. He couldn't stop chuckling though and was gratified as he went back into the house to see Bobby bent with his head in the fridge and oblivious. "Back down in five, Bobby," he called and headed up the stairs. He had to adjust himself in his jeans as he climbed the stairs and was even more glad the man hadn't looked; there would have been no hiding the evidence of Dean riling him up. He glanced back at the top of the stairs and rolled his eyes at the knowing look on Dean's face. "Shut up."

Dean snickered and really wished he could drag those jeans off his brother and get a look at the handprint he _knew_ he had left on his ass. He shook his head at himself and followed Sam down the hall, bumping into his back when Sam stopped in the door to their room. "What? Dude, move your gigantor ass already."

"Whoa." Sam went inside and stared. "Bobby's really embraced this whole thing."

Dean stared along with him for a moment at the king size bed squeezed against the back wall. "Holy crap." It wasn't only the bed that had stunned them both motionless, but the room itself had an all new decorative scheme; condoms hung everywhere. They were taped to the wall behind the bed in the shape of a giant penis and they dangled from the ceiling over the bed like naughty fairy lights. The base of the lamp on the bedside table had been replaced with a giant, neon purple dildo, and several packs of baby wipes were nestled around it like presents under a tree. Dean started to chuckle and then laugh and found himself bent over with his hands on his knees and tears in his eyes. He looked over when he felt Sam's hand land on his back and saw his brother had covered his face with the other and was roaring with laughter as well.

"Shit. Shit," Sam gasped. He wiped tears from his cheeks and rubbed his cheeks; sore from laughter. "I can't believe… Bobby."

Dean straightened finally and tossed his bag to the bed. "We're gonna get him back."

Sam snorted. "Obviously." He considered for a moment and his grin grew wider. "We could wallpaper his bedroom."

"Gay porn." Dean nodded and clapped Sam's shoulder. "We may have to find somewhere else to stay after that, but it's worth it."

Sam shrugged out of his jacket and tossed that on the dresser beside the door, then leaned back against the wall and watched his brother taking his off as well. "It doesn't seem real, you know? That we don't have to hide here." He shook his head when Dean looked at him. "I didn't think we'd ever get that."

Dean sighed. He went to Sam and pulled him down into a hug, wrapping his arms over his shoulders. He smiled as he felt Sam bury his nose behind his ear and his lips press against his skin. "I know, Sammy."

Sam basked in the warmth from his brother before he made himself let go. "He's never going to let this go, is he?"

"Dude, we're gonna be finding condoms in weird places for the rest of our lives." Dean chuckled and gave him a push toward the door. "Let's go. I'm hungry."

They followed the smell of roasting meat back down to the kitchen and found Bobby mashing potatoes with one hand and talking into the phone with the other. He pointed at Dean and waved toward the steaks sizzling on the stove.

"Yeah, George. I got that much." Bobby rolled his eyes and moved aside so Dean could reach the stove. He didn't argue when Sam pulled the bowl of potatoes away from him and sat down to mash them. "I ain't sayin' there's not somethin' screwy goin' on, but I think you're reachin' if you think that thing's what you're dealin' with."

"Case?" Sam asked softly.

Bobby nodded, then shrugged. "Alright, look. I'll come get ya'. Gimme about six hours." He nodded. "Right. Try not to piss anyone off more than normal." He hung up the phone and found both boys staring at him with open curiosity.

"Well?" Dean raised his brows. "What's goin' on?"

"Hunter got himself beat up enough to end up in the hospital." Bobby looked at them and their cooking dinner and sighed. "I'm gonna have to go get him. He managed to drive his fool self a day down the road while apparently bleedin' out before he wrecked and they tossed him in a hospital."

"Bleeding out?" Sam's brows went up. "What was he hunting?"

"Well, that's just it." He flicked his eyes to the steaks and snorted. "Dean, I know I taught you to treat steaks better than that." Bobby gave a mock glare to the elder Winchester and chuckled when he cursed and spun back to the stove. "I ain't really sure. I'm gonna have a look at his research and get him back here. I'm gonna go get my gear." He sighed. "I really wanted that steak."

Sam chuckled while Bobby left the room and went back to mashing the potatoes. "Steaks done yet?"

"Just about." Dean turned off the burner and moved the pan over.

"Cool. Got an idea." Sam grinned and got up to rummage through Bobby's cupboards.

Bobby reappeared with a backpack tossed over his shoulder. "Think you boys could toss some blankets on that bed in the back for me? Gonna need somewhere to dump George while he heals up."

"Yeah, Bobby. No problem. We can amuse ourselves while you're gone." Dean smirked at the suddenly worried look on Bobby's face and held out a foil wrapped bundle. "For the road. It was Sam's idea."

"What?" Bobby took it and peeled the foil back from one end. He grinned. "Is this a steak burrito?"

Sam nodded with a chuckle and sipped his coffee. "Sliced steak and potatoes in a wrap. You can eat while you drive."

"That's right kind of you boys." Bobby rewrapped the burrito even though he was close to salivating with the smell. He hefted his bag higher on his shoulder. "Figure I should be back sometime tomorrow." He looked at Dean nodding and waited, watching until Sam looked away to take another drink from his coffee cup. Bobby grinned even wider. "Don't put jizz stains on my damn couch." He left to the sound of Sam sputtering and coughing and he chuckled.

Dean slapped his brother on the back while Sam bent over the kitchen table, hacking and wheezing for breath. He laughed. "Breathe, dude."

"He did that on purpose." Sam straightened and felt his face warm with a blush. He looked out the window as Bobby's truck pulled away and laughed.

Dean nodded his agreement. "Yep. Couldn't have done it better myself."

"And you've tried." Sam rolled his eyes and wiped coffee from his chin and down his shirt. He gave Dean an amused look and shrugged. "So."

"So."

"Stain the couch?"

Dean snorted. "Naturally."

A little while later, Dean leaned back into the old couch with a satisfied groan. He settled his hands over his full stomach and closed his eyes. "That was some good meat."

Sam chuckled and followed him into the living room. He looked at Dean sitting there with his bow-legs splayed out and head tipped back, and Sam licked his lips. "Mmm hmm." He quietly pulled his shirts over his head while toeing off his shoes, and undid his jeans, pushing them and his boxers down to step out of them. It was strange, stripping off in Bobby's living room and this time knowing the man would not hate them forever if he caught them. Sam smirked; they were in no danger of being caught, and his brother looked entirely too enticing on the couch. The slightly chilled air in the room sent goosebumps running over his naked skin, and Sam knew just the way to get warm.

Dean half-dozed in a sated food coma with his head resting on the back of the couch. He heard Sam moving around but couldn't rouse himself enough to do anything about it. He startled when something heavy landed in his lap, and Dean's eyes flew open to watch his gloriously naked little brother, wearing nothing but his collar, settle himself with his legs spread wide around Dean's hips and his knees buried in the cushions. Dean smiled and relaxed again. He curved his hands around Sam's hips. "Hey, little brother."

Sam leaned down and licked at Dean's lips. He hummed happily and kissed Dean until they were both breathless. He moaned as Dean's hands gripped around the cheeks of his ass and pulled him in with a rough rhythm against his body. "Think I know what I want for dessert." He leaned down to his right, letting his teeth graze along Dean's throat until he found the little bottle of lube he had set on the couch beside them.

Dean groaned as Sam pushed the little bottle into his hand. He turned his head and dug his teeth into the bend of his brother's throat below the elephant hair of the collar. He chuckled as Sam's moan turned into a whine and his brother's hips lurched forward into his own. He licked over the red mark with a smile and spread lube over the fingers of one hand while he tilted his head up to kiss Sam again. "So fuckin' sexy, Sammy," he groaned as he petted his wet fingers at Sam's hole and his brother gasped into his mouth.

"More, Dean," Sam pleaded. He managed to spread his legs a little wider and tossed his head back as he felt two of Dean's fingers slide inside of him. "Fuck, yes."

"Christ, Sammy." Dean let out a moan of his own as Sam's hands scrabbled at his jeans, working to free his cock without interfering with his hands at the same time. "Take it so good, baby boy. Fuck." He slid a third finger inside his brother just as Sam's nimble fingers closed around his cock and bit at Sam's nipples until his brother was a trembling mess in his lap.

"Ready. I'm ready. Please, Dean. Please!" Sam leaned back as Dean's fingers slipped out of him and braced his hands on his brother's knees behind him. He looked down his chest at Dean and smiled as he lifted his hips up and held there while Dean pressed the tip of his cock to his entrance. "Yeah, come on. Fuck me. Please, please."

"Jesus," Dean breathed. He ran his free hand up his brother's chest until he could capture a nipple between his fingers and pinched until Sam tossed his head back again. "Gonna kill me. Come on." He loosed a long, loud groan as Sam pressed himself down and took him inside. "Yeah. Yeah. Fuck yeah."

Sam kept his eyes closed and focused on the sensations as Dean's long, thick cock slid up inside him. His voice shuddered out of him long and low as his ass came to rest against his brother's hips and Dean's cock pressed into his prostate in a delicious explosion of pleasure. "Fuck, Dean."

Dean's eyes were focused on the place where he was joined with his brother. He bit his bottom lip, listening to the noises trembling out of his brother as Sam slid slowly back up his cock and then dropped back down. "God." He dug his fingers into Sam's hips, slid a bit further down on the couch and spread his legs to give him more leverage. "Love listenin' to you lose it, Sammy. Fuck." He waited for Sam to slide his hips up again and then held him in place.

Sam shouted and his back arched as Dean suddenly slammed his cock up inside him. "God! Dean!"

"Yeah." Dean pistoned his hips up into his brother. He panted for breath as Sam curled forward and scrabbled his fingers behind Dean's head into his short hair, trying to find something to grip on to.

Sam could do nothing but hold on as his brother slammed his cock inside him over and over. He opened his eyes and found Dean watching him avidly, plush, full bottom lip bitten between his teeth. He dropped his head and kissed his brother messily, barely able to stop moaning with each thrust. "Dean. Dean. Fuck!"

"Gonna… come… for me?" Dean reluctantly left Sam's mouth to lean forward and catch a nipple between his teeth again. Sam howled and Dean grinned around his mouthful of flesh. He pulled Sam's hips in, meeting each thrust of his own and knew he was nailing his brother's sweet spot when Sam's voice rose into a near scream as he threw his head back and came between them without his cock being touched. Dean's rhythm began to falter as the muscles inside his brother squeezed and fluttered around his cock almost painfully. It was all he needed to tip him over the edge and he yelled Sam's name as his release found him.

Sam slumped over his brother's shoulder as he felt Dean filling him up. He panted for air, smiling as his brother's hips stuttered up into him again and again working through his release. He moaned when he felt one of Dean's hands slide from his hip to his dick. Sam's whole body shuddered hard when Dean stroked his cock and a second, smaller orgasm overcame him. "Oh. Oh, fuck!"

Dean chuckled breathlessly and stilled at last. He wrapped his arms around Sam's shaking back and held him tight. "S'one way to… christen a couch, huh?"

Sam gave an exhausted, sleepy laugh and nodded against Dean's sweat-slicked shoulder. "S'gonna kill us. Bobby."

"Worth it." Dean kissed Sam's shoulder and gave him a nudge. "Move, lump."

Sam snorted but slowly eased back. He dragged his teeth along Dean's jaw as he shifted his hips and let Dean's cock slip out of him. He shivered at the rush of come slipping down his thighs and got shakily to his feet. "Yech. Shower."

Dean looked down at the stained crotch of his jeans and grimaced. "And laundry." He chuckled and stood, tucking himself back into his jeans and pulled them up his hips.

Sam bent and scooped his clothes from the floor. He tossed them at his brother's chest with a grin. "You can start there." He turned and ran into the hall and up the stairs, laughing when he heard Dean's steps thundering behind him.

"Gonna kick your ass, Sammy!" Dean yelled as said naked ass vanished around the corner at the top of the stairs.

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Dean leaned on the kitchen counter. He rubbed his eyes and watched the coffee brew. "Brew faster, dammit," he groaned. He hitched his sweats higher on his hips and wished he'd just stayed in bed curled around his brother. He grabbed his mug when he decided there was just enough brewed for a single cup and pulled the pot out, pouring it quickly before putting the pot back. He held the mug up beneath his nose, closed his eyes and sniffed appreciatively. "Mmm baby." He lifted it to his lips for his first, blissful sip and paused when he heard the distinctive rumble of Bobby's truck pulling up outside. "Aw, dammit." He reluctantly set the mug down and went to the door. He snagged a flannel of the hook beside the door and pulled that on before he went outside.

"Hey, Bobby," Dean called as the older hunter climbed down out of his truck. Dean looked at the strange man slumped in the passenger seat and nodded. "That our wounded guy?"

"Yeah. Come gimme a hand with him." Bobby looked around in the predawn light and frowned. "Sam?"

"Still catchin' z's." Dean shrugged and went to the other side of the truck. "Nice decorating job by the way."

Bobby was startled into a laugh and nodded. "Just wanted my boys to feel at home. Alright, George. You with me?"

Dean watched the man in the truck roll his head sluggishly over to peer at them with brown eyes beneath a mop of curly, brown hair. He was older than Dean had thought he would be, or hunting had prematurely aged him. "Howdy." Dean leaned in and pulled one of the man's arms over his shoulders. "I'm gonna help you out." He looked back to Bobby. "Anywhere I shouldn't grab?"

"His back's a mess and he's got about fifty stitches in that left leg." Bobby helped Dean ease the man out of the truck. He grunted when most of George's weight landed on his shoulder.

"Bleedin' Christ," George groaned. He fought to get his legs under him and not force the other men to carry him. "I can walk."

Dean snorted. "Yeah, you're doin' great at that."

"Fuck off," George fired back and then rolled his eyes. "Sorry. Been a long damn week."

"Don't worry about it." Dean knew well how a job gone bad could turn you into an asshole and didn't hold it against the man. "Let's get him in." They half-carried George between them up the steps and into the house, through the living room, and into the spare room he and Sam had cleaned up last night. "Easy." Dean lowered George down to the bed while Bobby steadied the man's bad leg.

George groaned again in relief as he settled back into the bed, propped half on his left side by the pillows. He closed his eyes and blew out a breath. "Should be a retirement program for hunters who've had it."

Bobby chuckled and spread a blanket out over the man's legs. "You hungry or you just wanna pass out for a while?"

"Pass out. G'way," George said sleepily and kept his eyes firmly closed.

Dean smirked and left the room with Bobby pulling the door closed behind them. "He really gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, eventually. He's a mess though." Bobby headed for the kitchen and a much needed cup of coffee. He smiled as he came in and found Sam there. "Mornin', Sam."

"Hey, Bobby." Sam turned and held out a steaming mug to him.

Bobby took the mug and smiled down at it. "I need this."

"Where's mine?" Dean protested.

Sam chuckled and held out another mug. "Stop whining, you big baby." He ducked the hand Dean slapped out to the back of his head. "How's… what was his name? George?"

"Banged up." Bobby sat down at his table and shook his head. "He's got one hell of a screwy mess that I guess has just been dumped on our plates."

Sam leaned against the refrigerator and sipped his coffee. "What was he hunting?"

Bobby shook his head and scrubbed a hand through his hair under his cap. "Damnedest thing. I looked at his research while they were checking him out of the hospital, and I think he's actually right. He found a homo cthulus. Well, sure as hell looks like it could be, and I didn't think those things ever left Europe." He rolled his eyes. "Hell, they ain't even seen over there for a hundred years."

"Homo cthulus?" Sam scowled and then straightened in surprise. "Really? I thought that was just a myth!"

"Nope. Real deal. Hunter named Thomas Merrylin documented a couple back in the 1800's." Bobby smiled as the look on Sam's face, knowing the boy was going to be raiding his research books at any moment. "I've got George's research out in the truck."

"I'll be back." Sam set his mug on the counter and grinned as he left the room.

Dean heard the screen door bang and quirked a brow at Bobby. "Ok, share with the class. What the hell is a homo cthulus? Sounds naughty."

Bobby snorted a laugh. "Get yer' brain outta the gutter. And you've heard of it before. Lovecraft sensationalized the damn things. Call of Cthulu?"

"Wait. Wait." Dean waved a hand. "You mean to tell me that shit is real? Come on."

"Yep. They're mean bastards, too." Bobby sighed as the enormity of the case began to settle in and looked up when Sam came back into the house with a small box. "This ain't gonna be no walk in the park if it this thing."

"Cthulu, Bobby." Sam shook his head, a little in awe, and set the box on the table to start going through it. "That's like finding out Big Foot is real."

Dean chuckled fondly and watched Sam start setting papers and pictures out on the table. "Ok, refresh my memory. I bang… I mean I, uh, dated a girl in high school who read Call of Cthulu." He kicked Sam's leg under the table when his brother looked up in surprise and smiled for the idiot he used to be. "Shuddup. She wasn't impressed either. Said the guy was a screaming racist. Wanted dig him up to slap him."

Sam smiled and nodded. "Yeah, he was definitely a narrow-minded asshole."

"Idjits." Bobby laughed and leaned back with his coffee. "Lovecraft wrote about the thing because he actually ran into them once." He nodded when both boys looked up curiously. "There's a note in Merrylin's journals about saving some guy named Howard and how he failed to save the guy's friends. Said they were 'devoured' by the creatures."

"Devoured?" Dean leaned forward and braced his elbows on the table. "How do these things kill?"

"They play with their food." Bobby shook his head. "They can drive people mad, according to the lore. Come into contact with one, and it's like gettin' whammied with a crazy ray. They're supposed to be able to control people, too, power of suggestion or some shit. The creepy part is, the people that've been whammied, they don't know they're ridin' the crazy train. They think they're acting perfectly rational and fighting evil."

"I hate monsters that can screw with your head." Dean shuddered. He looked up and saw a brief, pained look cross his brother's face, in no doubt that they were both remembering what happened in an asylum once and more recently with the cambion. Dean rubbed a hand over his chest for just a moment with the memory of the ache from the rock salt. He shook his head when he caught Sam's eyes on him and smiled to reassure him. "Do you know how many of these things we're after?"

"No idea. Hopefully, just the one, but George never did get a look at it." Bobby tapped the folder Sam had just pulled out. "He ran into a couple townsfolk bein' controlled by it, though. Messed 'im up good. He says he probably could'a got out of it without a scratch, but he didn't wanna kill any of the poor bastards."

Sam let out a breath, relieved to know that this other hunter had gone out of his way to avoid hurting the innocent, just as they would. "Do we know if there's any way to break the mind control?"

"Nope." Bobby pulled over a coroner's report and scanned through it for the second time. "Merrylin seemed to think killin' the homo cthulus was the only way to free them. But there was another guy…" He looked up to the ceiling trying to remember. "Damn, can't think of his name. Back in the sixties. He figured if you could jolt their systems, overload the brain or somethin', that maybe you could shake 'em loose."

"Well, that sounds pleasant." Dean groaned. "How do we gank it? That's what I need to know."

"I really don't like the idea of sendin' you boys after this thing." Bobby tossed the report onto the table and looked between them. "Bad enough you'll have some prehistoric, mutant, mind-controlling squid thing after ya', but some of the locals are gonna be gunnin' for ya' without even knowin' they're doin' it."

"We can handle it," Sam said seriously. "I'm not saying it'll be easy, but we can do this. You know we can."

"Yeah, I know." Bobby finished his coffee and stood. "Don't mean I have to like it. I'll see if I can find a copy of Merrylin' notes on these things."

Sam watched him go and sat next to his brother. "He's nervous."

"He wishes he could come with us." Dean shrugged at the surprised look on Sam's face. "He's not happy he's gotta stay here and babysit George when he could be comin' with us for backup."

"Yeah." Sam sighed and pushed the coroner's report Bobby had set down over to his brother. "This thing, it opened their bellies, ate some of the internal organs, and according to this…" He tapped one of the pages for emphasis. "… it inserted something into their skulls through their noses and sucked out large portions of the brain."

"Jesus." Dean leaned over and read the report more carefully. He shivered. "Says here they were probably alive when it happened." He chewed on his bottom lip and shook his head. "I don't have a good feeling about this job. We're not gonna be able to trust anyone there."

"It's not like we usually get support from the locals on a case." Sam picked up what looked like George's hunter's journal and started leafing through it for information on the creature. "We're always careful about them. We'll just have to be more careful than usual." He looked over at Dean with a smirk. "No hanging out hustling pool until three a.m. on this job for you."

"Spoilsport." Dean chuckled, but he still felt the unease.

"I'm gonna go research with Bobby." Sam stood and bent. He flicked his eyes toward the living room and Bobby's study, and then smiled when he didn't see him as he turned and caught Dean's jaw in his hand. He tipped his brother's head back and kissed him. He rested their foreheads together for a moment. "I like that we don't have to hide here anymore."

Dean nodded. "Me too, baby boy," he said softly. "Go get your geek on. I'll go through this mess." He watched Sam leave and got up to get another cup of coffee before he sat back down and started sifting through George's notes.

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Sam sat cross-legged on the floor of Bobby's study with an old journal open in his hands and several more in his lap. His coffee cup sat beside his left knee, half full and long gone cold as he read. He absently ran his fingers over the old paper as he deciphered the small, ornate script on the pages. Thomas Merrylin had impeccable, if tiny, handwriting. He had realized over an hour ago that nearly everything modern hunters knew about vampires and werewolves came from Merrylin and his careful documentation of the species. He was engrossed in a description of the homo cthulus - so engrossed he didn't hear the footstep behind him until a heavy hand landed on his shoulder.

"Shit!" Sam lurched to the side with a shout. His coffee cup rolled out across the floor to crash into the base of Bobby's desk as Sam tumbled and ended on his knees with his arms up defensively. He stared in surprise at the strange man leaning against the bookshelf and allowed himself to relax slightly as he got to his feet. "You're George, aren't you?" he asked and the man nodded. He looked haggard, standing there in a borrowed pair of Bobby's sweatpants and no shirt. "Should you even be up?"

"Uh… probably not." George looked up at the much taller man and swallowed. "Sorry. Didn't mean to freak you out. Thought you heard me. Crap," he groaned and began to slump to the floor as his legs suddenly refused to hold him. His fall was stopped by a pair of strong arms that caught him around the chest and easily lifted him, all but carrying him across the living room to the battered couch beneath the window.

"I'm Sam. You met Dean this morning." Sam smiled as he eased George to the cushions and let him rest back against them. "Alright?"

George nodded and shifted slightly so he wasn't leaning on his wounded back. "Think so, yeah. Just uh… woke up and forgot where I was for a minute." He looked up Sam ruefully. "Sorry about that."

"Don't worry about it." Sam glanced up as his brother's head sprinted past the window over the couch with Bobby on his heels and groaned. "Uh, so just be quiet and let me calm down the over-protective grizzly."

"Huh?" George frowned in confusion.

"Dean." Sam chuckled and moved to put himself between the man and the hall as Dean burst through the front door. Sam put up his hands. "I'm fine! Nothing happened."

"We heard you yell." Dean glared around the room and settled on George on the couch. "What the hell happened?"

"What do you think?" Sam lowered his hands and moved away from the couch as Bobby came over to check on the wounded hunter. "I had my nose so deep in a book I didn't hear him come up behind me." He gave an embarrassed laugh and ran his hands through his hair. "Startled the hell out of me. Killed one of your coffee mugs, Bobby. Sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Bobby sat next to George and resisted the urge to slap the man up the back of his head. "What the hell were you thinkin' gettin' out of bed, anyway?"

"Not a damn invalid." George glared at the older man and then rolled his eyes as Bobby simply stared at him. "Right. Alright. I am. Fuck. Leg is killin' me, ok?"

Bobby snorted. "I was about to come check on you."

"Took too long." George looked over as Dean snorted a laugh.

"Can't believe you even managed to get outta that bed." Bobby shook his head. "Come on. I'll run ya' to the head, and then you're goin' right back. I ain't pickin' your ass up off the floor."

"We're gonna finish packing up." Dean hooked a thumb over his shoulder and rested a hand on Sam's shoulder.

"Don't forget the molotovs in the garage." Bobby grinned and heaved George to his feet.

"Molotovs?" Sam asked as Dean nudged him toward the front door. He ducked back to collect Merrylin's journals and jogged to catch his brother at the door.

Dean chuckled. "Yeah, well, we couldn't find anything concrete on how to kill the creatures so we figured we'd try roasting it."

Sam shook his head fondly as they headed for the garage. "You're gonna enjoy that way too much."

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_To Be Continued…_


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I am….. SO SORRY! Lol I never intended anyone to have to wait this long for the second chapter! I should never have posted the first until I was finished with the alphabet on my gen account. You've all so graciously waited for the next chapter and I'm working on this one in earnest now that I've finished the alphabet. I never forgot you or this story. I was just hopelessly sidetracked with the other collection and a I'm bad, bad writer. Lmao Back now, kids! On we go!
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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" _Can't believe you even managed to get outta that bed." Bobby shook his head. "Come on. I'll run ya' to the head and then you're goin' right back. I ain't pickin' your ass up off the floor."_

" _We're gonna finish packing up." Dean hooked a thumb over his shoulder and rested a hand on Sam's shoulder._

" _Don't forget the molotovs in the garage." Bobby grinned and heaved George to his feet._

" _Molotovs?" Sam asked as Dean nudged him toward the front door. He ducked back to collect Merrylin's journals and jogged to catch his brother at the door._

_Dean chuckled. "Yeah well, we couldn't find anything concrete on how to kill the damn creatures so we figured we'd try roasting it."_

_Sam shook his head fondly as they headed for the garage. "You're gonna enjoy that way too much."_

**Chapter 2**

Sam stared down at the stun gun in his hand and swallowed around a lump of emotion. He turned the small device over in his hands, eyes falling to the metal prongs on the end that delivered the stun and shuddered. "There has to be a better way."

"You said a low-level electric jolt might free someone from the thing's mind-mojo." Dean shrugged and gave his taser a practice test. He pressed the trigger and it crackled as a small charge arced between the prongs. He grinned and then looked up at his little brother. His smile instantly faded as he took in Sam's pale face and the fear in his eyes as he stared down at the similar weapon in his hands. "Sammy?" Dean set his taser aside before sliding a hand up the back of his brother's neck. It only took him a moment to understand what the problem was and he sighed sadly. "Hey. Come're. Come on." He plucked the weapon from his brother's hands and tossed it to the counter beside his own, then pulled Sam into a hug. "That's not gonna happen again. It's not, Sammy."

Sam nodded and buried his face in his brother's neck. "I can't lose you. I can't…" He sniffed, remembering the hunt for the bloody bones and how he had watched Dean fade away when the super-juiced taser they had used had caught him as well. "I can't do that again, Dean. Fuck."

"Not gonna happen," Dean assured him.

"Are uh… you guys need some alone time or somethin'?"

Dean flicked his eyes to the clerk behind the counter angrily. "Go play with your register for a minute." He turned away from the clerk, dismissing him, and leaned back to look at his brother. "These babies only have the standard charge, dude. We're not over-clocking 'em this time." He grinned. "Worst these'll do is make one of us pee our pants. Granted, that's pretty high up there on the 'suck' list but that's it. That's the worst."

Sam felt his face burning with shame as he nodded. "Really never wanted these in the arsenal again."

Dean chuckled. He squeezed Sam's neck over his collar for a moment before letting him go. "Only time I've ever seen someone salt and burn a taser." And Sam _had_ done so after the bloody bones with a grim face and determination that they would never own another and had sworn them both off hunting a bloody bones ever again. "Come on. Let's get these and get outta here."

Sam blew out a breath and scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Sorry. Just… sorry."

"I get it, man. You know I do." Dean gave his brother a nudge toward the register and the clerk who was still staring at them curiously. "It's gonna be fine, Sammy."

"Yeah." Sam wasn't sure he believed that, but he let it go for now.

Dean pulled out his wallet and his newest fake credit card, handing that over to the guy at the register. He had been planning on paying cash for the tasers, but the smirk on the young guy's face as they stepped up changed his mind. "Ring it up." He collected the bagged weapons off the counter and his card when the clerk handed it back and signed the receipt with a broad smile. "Don't spend it all in one place."

Sam rolled his eyes with a fond, knowing smile as he and Dean left the store, but he didn't argue. "How far away are we from Tybee Island?"

"'Bout three hours, I think." Dean shivered as they left the store and the cold autumn wind gusted into his face. "Bobby shot me a text; said there's a Day's Inn near some old fort."

"First Day's Inn in the country," Sam said and then ducked his head with a cough. "I think. Read it somewhere."

"Nerd." Dean grinned and went to the trunk, opening it. "You would know that."

"Shuddup." Sam smiled and climbed into the car while Dean stowed the tasers. He sincerely hoped they would have no cause to use them. He didn't even want to think about whether or not he would be able to use one on his brother. He slid across the bench seat until he was pressed against Dean's side and sighed with a smile as Dean's arm rose over his head and settled on his shoulders. He slid down in the seat enough to rest his head on Dean's shoulder and closed his eyes. "Gonna grab a nap."

Dean chuckled. He turned and dropped a kiss into Sam's hair while his brother stretched his legs along the seat and into the footwell. "Good." He pulled back out onto the highway and tried to let his nerves settle. He had a bad feeling about this job that he couldn't seem to shake, and Sam's nerves over the tasers had certainly not helped.

He let his mind drift as they drove east with Sam's warmth along his right side. Dean thought back over the last few months - over the last year, really - and smiled as he tugged Sam in a little tighter. The only thing he could wish for that would make things better was for their dad to still be alive. He shook his head, pushing the dark thoughts away, and followed the exit signs to Tybee Island. "Hey, Sammy," he said and jostled his brother lightly with his arm until Sam's head rose up. He chuckled fondly when Sam gave him a sleepy look before sitting up. After a lifetime spent living on the road together, Dean could not even begin to count the number of times he had seen that look. "We're here."

Sam rubbed the sleep out of his eyes and looked around as they crossed a bridge over a narrow sound. "Wow. It's beautiful." He smiled at the turn-of-the-century homes lining the streets. They were painted in white and yellow, brown and orange, and made Sam feel as though they had stepped back in time. Old cypress trees rose up above the rooftops with moss hanging like streamers to blow in the ocean breeze. He startled when the phone in his pocket buzzed and dug it out with Dean chuckling beside him. "Shut up."

Dean smirked. "Who is it?"

"Bobby." Sam flipped the phone open. "It's a text. He says 'did some digging. Tybee B&B better choice for Winchester sleepovers.'"

That made Dean laugh and he shook his head. "Still weirds me out that he knows about us."

Sam smiled and nodded. "Oh, yeah. There's an address." He looked up and pointed ahead of them. "Three blocks up. That's the street."

"Which way?" Dean asked and glanced over to see Sam shrug.

"Scenic route?" Sam grinned and tucked his phone away after shooting a quick 'thank you' to Bobby. "Try left. More rooftops that way. More populated is probably a more likely spot for a bed and breakfast." He watched the buildings as they passed and looked at the people on the streets and shook his head. "It certainly doesn't look like some primordial evil has taken over, but…"

"What?" Dean glanced at him before putting his eyes back on the road. When it came to his little brother, he never questioned Sam's gut.

"I dunno." Sam blew out a breath and looked over at Dean. "Something doesn't feel right."

"Just means we're in the right place." Dean nodded ahead of them. "There it is. Whoa." The house rose up at the end of the long street. It was a warm, inviting yellow with white trim, brick-lined walks, a gazebo tucked off to the side, and a massive, moss-draped cypress tree towering above it like a sentinel. "He sure we can afford the friggin' Ritz, here?"

Sam chuckled. "His text said he already booked us a room. I think he's screwing with us again. Bet you ten it's the honeymoon suite."

Dean laughed and nodded as he followed a sign for parking down the street. He parked the car in the half-empty lot and stretched once he got out. The breeze blowing in from the ocean a mile away was cold enough to make him shiver, and he wrapped his arms around his chest. "Wish we could'a gotten this job in a warmer month."

Sam opened the trunk and pulled out Dean's bag, tossing it to him. "Then you would have complained about the heat."

"Would not." Dean glared at his brother. "I don't complain."

"You whine."

"Your face whines!"

Sam snorted a laugh and slung the strap of the weapons bag over his shoulder along with his duffel. "Lame, big brother." He yelped when Dean wrapped an arm around his neck and dragged his head down. "No noogies!"

"Tough." Dean laughed as he dug his knuckles into the top of Sam's head before letting him go. He danced away from the punch Sam aimed at his shoulder with another laugh and led the way up the shaded walk to the house. He whistled softly in admiration. "This is one sweet place."

Sam nodded and climbed the stairs of the front porch. He raised his hand to knock on the door and it opened ahead of him. "Oh! Uh… hello," he said to the man who leaned around the open door to look up at them. He was perhaps six feet tall, less Sam thought, with a white streak cutting through the middle of his black hair, and round glasses. "We have a reservation."

"Oh! Of course. Of course. Come in!" The man stepped back and pulled the door open wide. "I'm Daryl Pink. Welcome to Tybee Island Inn."

"Thanks." Sam followed him inside with Dean at his back and looked admiringly around the lobby. It looked as though it had been left behind from a Casablanca set and gave the feeling of being somewhere exotic and warm with cabanas and drinks with umbrellas. Sam flushed a little, picturing his big brother in a pair of tight swim trunks and holding one of those silly drinks by the mahogany bar in the next room.

"Sammy?" Dean frowned and tapped his shoulder. "You alright? You look a little weird."

Sam coughed, clearing his throat and nodded. "Yeah. No. I'm good. I'm, uh… so, we have a reservation under Singer?" He assumed Bobby would have used his name rather than theirs and was right when Daryl smiled and nodded.

Dean scowled with Sam's odd behavior, but then he took in the flushed face, the little stutter, and the way he wouldn't meet Dean's eyes while Sam lowered his duffel to cover his crotch and Dean grinned. He moved up behind his brother and slid a surreptitious hand along his brother's ass where Daryl couldn't see it. "Hope you gave us a room with a big bed."

Sam froze with Dean's voice in his ear and his hand on his ass and then closed his eyes in defeat; Dean had clearly noticed his arousal. "Dammit," he muttered and shivered as his brother chuckled in his ear.

"Uh… yes. Yes, there is…" Daryl blinked several times at the two tall, attractive men and then shook himself, turning to a desk in the corner. "Mr. and Mr. Singer. You're booked in the Captain's Quarters."

Dean's grin spread. "Arrr, matey!"

"Oh, man." Sam put a hand over his face and met Daryl's eyes as the man turned back with a key in hand. "I'm Sam. This is Dean. And I apologize in advance for all the pirate jokes you're going to hear."

Daryl laughed at that and handed him the key. "Young man, I've heard far worse. Now, if you'll follow me." He led them through the house and smiled as heard Dean muttered more pirate-related phrases under his breath. "Breakfast is served in the solarium at eight." He waved a hand to his left. "Lunch at two and dinner at eight. If you miss a meal, feel free to raid the kitchen. Just don't leave Marta a mess or she's likely to poison your eggs." He chuckled and looked over his shoulder to find both men smiling. "Now, your suite is downstairs on the lower level. This is the stair." He put a hand on the rail of a classic, wrought-iron spiral staircase and started down them. "Yours is the only suite down here. Just you and the wine cellar." He heard another muttered comment from Dean that, given Sam's gasp, had to have been particularly dirty and Daryl chuckled.

"This place is amazing," Sam said and slapped his brother's hand away from his ass once they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"Thank you!" Daryl stopped at a heavy wooden door and let Sam open it with the key. "You have a full bath, king-size bed, wet bar, flat screen with cable access, and that door there…" he pointed with a smile. "… is your own personal entry with a private courtyard." He stepped back, letting the young men into the room and then went out into the hall. "Settle in and be sure to let me know if you need anything."

Once Daryl had gone, Dean gave his second low, appreciative whistle of the day as he took in the room. "Hot damn, Sammy. Kinda hopin' it takes us a while to figure out this case."

Sam chuckled and set his duffel and the weapons bag on one of the chairs flanking a wide, comfortable looking leather couch. He nodded to a support pillar in the center of the room and looked over at Dean with a mischievous smirk. "That looks sturdy."

"Oh, we are definitely gonna have some fun in this room," Dean promised. He looked through a wide door to the left and grinned. "Holy crap. Check out this monster bed."

Sam followed him into the bedroom and laughed when Dean dropped his bag to the floor and dove onto the king-size bed. "Hey." He slapped a hand on his brother's ass. "We've got work to do, remember?"

"Mmph," Dean grunted with his face buried in the pillows.

"Bum," Sam laughed and shook his head. "I'll lock us down."

Dean turned his head enough to see Sam and smiled. "Can't move. The awesome bed ate me."

"Jerk." Sam gave Dean's backside a squeeze before going back to the weapons bag.

Dean groaned happily again and rolled to his back. It felt so nice to be laying out on a soft mattress after so many hours driving that he truly did not want to move again. He closed his eyes and listened absently to Sam moving around the spacious suite and the soft shake of the salt container. He heard Sam come back into the bedroom and snorted a soft laugh when he felt his brother start climbing over his legs. "Dude. Case?"

Sam smirked and ducked his head down to bite the hinge of Dean's jaw lightly. "Still be there in five minutes, and you look fucking hot sprawled out on this awesome bed, big brother."

"Yeah?" Dean smiled with the warm curl of lust in his belly. He gave a low groan when Sam dropped his hips to rub their denim-clothed erections together. He curled his arms around Sam, planted one foot, and flipped them in a rush of movement that made Sam yelp and then laugh. Dean chuckled as he settled atop his brother and caught his lips, kissing him breathless.

"I let you do that." Sam tipped his head back to let Dean's tongue and teeth slide over his jaw to his throat.

"Uh-huh." Dean slid one hand down Sam's chest, dragging his nails lightly until Sam moaned. He gave an answering moan of his own when Sam's big hands gripped his hips and pulled him in. "Fuck, yeah."

Sam gasped and hummed a moan with Dean's hand making its way to his ass. He nodded while his brother's fingers spread possessively and teased at his hole through his jeans. "Dean."

"Yeah." Dean started up a rhythm, thrusting his hips into Sam, curling his back a little with each roll of his hips until it felt like his cock was being stroked, and he knew Sam was getting the same sensation, if his brother's noises were any indication. He watched Sam's expressive face - the closed eyes and panting mouth - and groaned. "Wanna hear you."

Sam nodded. He kissed his brother when Dean's lips slid along his and matched the rhythm Dean was setting, pulling Dean's hips in as he rolled his own up. The familiar pressure was building with each almost too-rough press of the denim over his cock and it was perfect. "God, Dean!"

"That's it." Dean tugged Sam's left leg up and dug his fingers into his ass, pulling Sam's hair with his other hand at the same moment, and earned a shout. "Come on, Sammy. Come. Wanna hear it. Fuck!" He lost himself in the frenzy of sensation as they moved and rocked together on the bed, the feeling of imminent orgasm burning through his body and starting to clog the air in his chest. "Sammy."

Sam nodded, unable to speak as the pleasure reached a peak. He threw his head back and shouted as he came. He felt the hot pulses trapped in his boxers and shuddered when his big brother's hips slammed into his own as Dean followed him over the edge.

"Fuck!" Dean yelled it into the skin of Sam's neck as his orgasm found him. He shivered and let his hips jerk in their own lost rhythm while they both slowly came down from the pleasure until they were gasping together. Dean began to chuckle as he nosed into the hair behind Sam's ear and heard Sam's answering, breathless laugh. He grimaced then, feeling the warm, sticky mess in his pants and snorted. "Yech."

"S'your fault," Sam said, smiling into his brother's neck while he caught his breath.

"You started it," Dean objected and grudgingly began to lift himself away from his brother. He looked down at Sam and laughed. "Your hair, dude. It's like…" He laughed more loudly when Sam shoved him to the side and rolled off the bed. "… like you stuck your finger in a light socket! That's awesome!"

"Shut up!" Sam couldn't quite hide the laugh before he grabbed a pillow from the chair at the foot of the bed and slapped it into Dean's head. "Asshat," he muttered and grabbed his bag, heading for the bathroom.

Dean hugged the pillow, allowing himself a minute to just laugh at the picture Sam had presented. "Oh, man." He shook his head with a smile and sat up, tugging his jeans away from his crotch with one hand while unzipping them with the other. "It's like we're horny teenagers sometimes. Jesus." He stripped his jeans and boxers off, using the soiled cotton to wipe himself down, and strode out into the sitting area for his bag.

"Dude," Sam said and threw his hands up as he came out of the bathroom and found his big brother bent over the couch, naked from the waist down. "That's not even fair." He reached out to run his hands over the bared flesh of his big brother's ass, but Dean ducked away.

"Knock it off!" Dean laughed and waved a clean pair of boxers at Sam. "Promise you can ride me all you want tonight, but right now, how about we do some actual work?"

Sam grinned and zipped up his own fresh jeans. "Stop showing off like that and we'll get more done."

"Can't help it if this ass is irresistible." Dean cracked his own hand into his ass and then rubbed it. "Ow."

"You're ridiculous."

"Your face is ridiculous."

"Put your pants on before we get sidetracked again," Sam warned with a laugh. He self-consciously ran his fingers through his hair to tame it and then grabbed the bag with his laptop. "You should check out the bathroom," he said and pointed before Dean could pull on his clean boxers. "Seriously. That tub?"

"What?" Dean crossed the room and stuck his head in the bathroom and his jaw fell open. An antique, brass, claw-footed tub big enough for the both of them took up a whole wall of the room, and he nodded while a naughty smile spread over his face. "Definitely doin' all kinds of kinky shit in that tub. Hot damn."

Sam chuckled while the laptop booted. "Damn. Forgot to ask Daryl for the WiFi password." He reached across the desk he had settled at and picked up the phone and frowned. "Line's dead. I'll let him know," he said as he stood. "Back in a minute."

"Where you going?" Dean asked. He sat on the back of the leather couch and tugged his jeans on.

"To get the WiFi password and to let Daryl know our phone's dead down here." Sam smiled and leaned down brush a kiss over his brother's lips. "Five minutes, tops."

"Dude." Dean hurriedly pulled his jeans on while Sam strode to the door and out. "Hey! Dammit, Sammy! Wait up! Crap." He zipped his jeans and winced, nearly catching himself in the fly, then jogged barefoot to the door after his brother. He looked up and groaned, seeing his much longer-legged brother already vanishing at the top of the spiral stairs. "Awesome. Gonna kick your ass, and not in the fun way."

Sam stumbled at the top of the stairs trying to look back at Dean in his haste to beat him and chuckled. He caught himself on the railing, straightened, and let out an involuntary yelp to find Daryl only feet away. "Whoa!"

"Mr. Singer?" Daryl frowned. "Did you need something?"

"Yeah, uh." Sam shook himself and smiled. "The phone is dead in our suite, and I need the WiFi password, please."

Daryl's frown cleared for a smile "Of course! This way!"

"Dammit, Sammy." Dean started up the stairs and looked down with a scowl when he realized the floor was wet at the bottom. "Great. And it leaks down here. Sam!"

Sam looked back at his brother's shout and shook his head. "Uh, sorry. Dean's a little loud."

Daryl chuckled. "That's quite alright. Here." He handed Sam a business card with the WiFi password on the back. "And I'll see if I can figure out why the line is dead in your suite. Sorry about the inconvenience."

"No problem." Sam pocketed the card and headed back to the stairs in time to meet Dean at the top. "Dude, what?"

"What do you mean 'dude, what'?" Dean grabbed Sam's arm and gave him a nudge back to the stairs while he sent a wave to Daryl. He turned back to his brother and slapped his hand up the back of his head. "Brainwashing monster with a taste for 'long pig', remember? We don't split up on this job."

Sam snorted a laugh while he rubbed the back of his head and looked up over his shoulder at his brother. "Long pig?" He grinned and then groaned as he nearly hit his head on the stairs above him.

"Means people, jackass." Dean chuckled and steadied his brother when Sam tripped. "You're a menace."

"I know what it means." Sam reached the bottom and waited for Dean. "You're right, though. I wasn't thinking. Sorry."

"No harm, no foul." Dean pushed him ahead. "Let's figure out what to do next so we can grab some food." He smirked. "Seem to have worked up an appetite."

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Sam moved back a step from the gurney in the medical examiner's office and swallowed as he looked at the remains of the man lying atop it. "There's not much left in the abdominal cavity," he observed. He flicked his eyes to his brother and the green tinge to Dean's face gave him some comfort that he wasn't the only one affected by the grisly sight.

The medical examiner nodded solemnly. "Whoever's killing these poor bastards, they're making sure they suffer first."

"Wait, doc." Dean loosened his tie in deference to the gorge rising in his throat and scowled. "This guy was alive when he was gutted?"

"Oh, definitely. Look." The doctor picked up one of the dead man's hands and turned it palm up. "There are heavy traces of tissue from his own intestines here. He was trying to hold his guts in when he died."

"Jesus." Dean swallowed hard at that. "And the local cops have got nothing."

The doctor shook his head and recovered the body. "Not that I'm aware of, no. Sheriff Walker isn't the sort of man to let something like this go easily. If there's anything to turn up, he'll find it. Have you spoken to him yet, agents?"

"Ah, no. Not yet." Dean smiled and gave Sam a nod toward the door. "We wanted to have a look at the bodies first and see if there was a case here at all."

"The sheriff's our next stop," Sam assured the man. "Thank you, Doctor Collins." He quickly left and breathed deeply of the fresher air once the doors closed behind them, clearing the smell of antiseptic that had failed to mask the stench of ruptured intestines from his nose. "We really need to find this thing and stop it."

"Yeah." Dean scrubbed a hand through his hair as they headed toward the exit. "Those looked like knife wounds, like something sliced him open."

"Or really sharp claws." Sam wished he'd brought the research with them. "I don't remember anything in the lore about claws, though."

"We'll find out eventually when we gank the bitch." Dean shoved open the door and smiled as fresh, autumn air helped to cleanse the smell from the autopsy theater from his nose. "Let's go see what the sheriff has to say."

"Hopefully, he has more…" Sam's voice trailed off as they stepped outside and were met by four people. "Uh… excuse us." He took a step toward them and was stopped by Dean's arm across his chest.

"Wait." Dean's eyes narrowed as he looked at their faces - three men and one woman. None of them had moved, but their eyes were following them. "Something's not right."

"Shit. George." Sam tensed as the four townsfolk moved forward a step together. "He said it was the locals who almost killed him." He looked over at his brother. "Where are the tasers?"

"In the trunk," Dean ground out and braced himself for a fight.

Sam nodded. "Try not to kill them. It's not their fault." Still, even expecting the attack, Sam flinched as the four threw themselves at him and his brother. He caught the arm of one man who looked to be in his sixties before his fist made contact. "Stop!" Sam grunted as the man's body slammed into his and knocked him back a step. He twisted and used his weight to spin them so the man crashed into the wall in his place. Sam shouted in pain and surprise, feeling something sharp slice along his left arm. He turned to find the woman holding a bloodied knife and ducked aside as she stabbed at him again.

"Son of a bitch!" Dean kicked the knees out from under the man on his left and reeled when the man on his right got in a lucky swing to the side of his head. He spared a glance to his brother and felt cold fear when he saw the woman with the knife. "Sam, watch your ass!"

"I know!" Sam caught her arm before she could cut him again. He gasped as two strong arms wrapped around his neck from behind. A heavy weight dragged him backward and cut off his air. He rolled his eyes to his left and watched his brother stagger under the combined weight of the other two men. Sam fought to hold on to the woman's arm, keeping the knife from his throat as she strained to shove it home.

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_To Be Continued…_


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I just… I want you to remember how you love me, alright? Just cuddle that thought and, you know, no torches and pitchforks 'cause I love you too. ROFL 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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" _Try not to kill them. It's not their fault." Still, even expecting the attack, Sam flinched as the four threw themselves at him and his brother. He caught the arm of one man who looked to be in his sixties before his fist made contact. "Stop!" Sam grunted as the man's body slammed into his and knocked him back a step. He twisted and used his weight to spin them so the man crashed into the wall in his place. Sam shouted in pain and surprise, feeling something sharp slice along his left arm. He turned to find the woman holding a bloodied knife and ducked aside as she stabbed at him again._

" _Son of a bitch!" Dean kicked the knees out from under the man on his left and reeled when the man on his right got in a lucky swing to the side of his head. He spared a glance to his brother and felt cold fear when he saw the woman with the knife. "Sam, watch your ass!"_

" _I know!" Sam caught her arm before she could cut him again. He gasped as two strong arms wrapped around his neck from behind. A heavy weight dragged him backward and cut off his air. He rolled his eyes to his left and watched his brother stagger under the combined weight of the other two men. Sam fought to hold on to the woman's arm, keeping the knife from his throat as she strained to shove it home._

**Chapter 3**

Desperation gave Sam a spurt of adrenaline with a blade so close to his throat. Black spots were beginning to crawl across his field of vision, but he ignored them, using his strength to twist in his captor's grip. He dragged the woman's arm with him and moved just enough to send her blade into the shoulder of the man holding him. The arms around his neck released, and Sam stumbled out from between them. He had no time to regroup and winced, punching the woman in the side of the head with all his strength. She dropped to the ground unconscious, and Sam turned to the man. "Dean?"

"I'm… fine!" Dean snarled angrily as the weight of the two men bore him to his knees. He didn't fight the downward motion and used it to his advantage as he collapsed and then rolled out from beneath them. "Assholes." He took another kick at the first man's knee and this time connected, taking some small pleasure in the howl of pain when he hit the ground. Dean bounced back to his feet and faced the second man. He ducked in beneath the reaching arms, wrapped his own around the man's chest, and used his lower center of gravity to heave his attacker into the air and slam him over backwards into the cement. Dean rolled off the man and got stiffly to his feet. Thankfully, the man didn't move and left Dean to check on his brother. He watched Sam who was now straddling the chest of the last man standing – well, not standing anymore - and grimaced in sympathy when Sam slammed a fist into his jaw and put him down. "Ouch. That's gonna hurt later. Sammy, you good?"

Sam rose and wrapped a hand loosely around his sore throat. He coughed and nodded. "Yeah. We should get out of here before more of them show up."

"How the hell'd they even know we were here?" Dean wondered. He caught Sam's arm as they walked quickly across the parking lot to the Impala and jerked Sam to a stop when he felt blood. "That she-bitch get you?"

"It's nothing. Come on!" Sam pulled his arm loose and gave his brother a push of his own toward the car. "Or someone's going to see us and call the police."

"Dammit." Dean looked over his shoulder at the townsfolk. Only one of them was still moving, but Dean knew that man wouldn't be walking anywhere without help for a long time. He felt a pang of guilt for blowing out an innocent victim's knee, but there had been little choice.

"Dean!"

"Yeah, I'm coming."

Sam slid into the passenger seat and only once Dean was beside him with the engine rumbling, did he allow himself to feel the pain from his arm. "Crap." He pulled his left sleeve back as far as he could and sighed, finding his arm washed in blood beneath his sleeves.

"How bad is it?" Dean pulled quickly out onto the street and watched each car as it passed, suddenly paranoid that any and every person could be a danger.

"It's not that bad," Sam said easily, though he couldn't get a look at it without taking his jacket off. He didn't want to worry his brother while he was driving, not until they were safe. He settled his arm back in his lap and looked over at Dean's tense jaw. "We knew this could happen."

"Yeah; but not on day one, for cryin' out loud," Dean snarled angrily. He blew out a breath and shook his head. "Sorry. How the hell did they know?"

Sam shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe Dr. Collins is one of them? Or his secretary or even the manager at the inn. There's no way to know."

"This'd be easier if the pod people wore signs." Dean scowled out at the road and ignored the chuckle from his little brother. He blew out a breath and shook his head. "I really don't wanna go to the precinct now."

"We need to see the crime scene reports but I get it." Sam did understand; in the precinct, they would be surrounded by trained, armed men and women with no way of knowing if any or all of them could turn on them. All that had saved them in this last encounter was the fact that their attackers had, up until recently, been average folks; most of whom had probably never been in a physical fight in their lives. They had been lucky there had been no trained combat soldiers in the group. "What do you want to do?"

Dean leaned back in the seat and made the turn toward the police precinct. "Go hide with Steve and Joe and forget we ever even heard about this job?" He turned to look at Sam with a grin when he laughed. "I know. Bodies on the ground. We do the job." He sobered and leaned in to the hand Sam slid onto his shoulder. "Just… no splitting up, man. I mean it. And we don't even go to take a piss without a weapon, got it?"

Sam smirked and put his aching arm back in his lap. "We're gonna need to patch up my arm first or the cops are going to want to know what happened."

"Shit." Dean looked over at the torn sleeve of his brother's suit jacket. "Yeah, that's not gonna work."

"My overcoat's in the trunk." Sam shrugged. "It'll be too hot inside the station, but it'll hide the damage."

"It'll have to do." Dean spotted the police station and pulled in, parking as near to the front entrance as he could get. He wanted the Impala close if they had to make a fast exit. "Let me grab the first aid kit," he said as he climbed out.

Sam sighed heavily and worked at getting his suit jacket off his wounded arm. He groaned, knowing Dean was going to have a minor freak out as soon as he saw all the blood. Sam took hold of the shoulder of his left sleeve and pulled. The thin fabric of the dress shirt tore loudly, and he pulled it down his arm, leaving his arm bare just as Dean got back in the car.

"Son of a bitch, Sammy," Dean breathed. He set the first aid kit on the seat between them and looked at the long furrow the woman's knife had cut in his brother's arm, from forearm to biceps.

"Really only hurts when I bend my arm. It's not that bad."

"Any deeper and she'd have severed the fucking artery right here," Dean pointed out angrily as his fingers slid through his brother's blood, checking the severity of the wound.

Sam knew his brother's anger was directed at the creature for causing the injury, rather than him, and he smiled. "I'll be fine."

"This time." Dean shook his head and pulled a clean rag from the kit along with a bottle of water. "This is gonna sting."

Sam sat quietly through Dean cleaning his arm and instead watched the people on the street and the few coming in and out of the police station. They looked perfectly normal but any of them could become murderous without warning; it made him itch with tension. He twitched with a particularly painful swipe of the cloth.

"Sorry." Dean leaned in and dropped a light kiss on his brother's bare shoulder below the torn shirt. "Almost done. Think I'm gonna have to stitch some of this up later." He studied the injury as he used butterfly strips to pull it closed and nodded. "Yeah, these aren't gonna hold."

"It'll be fine." Sam plucked the gauze out of the kit only to have Dean snatch it away. "Mother hen."

"Danger magnet," Dean quipped back and smirked at the look of disgust on his brother's face. He wrapped Sam's arm carefully and had to stop himself from kissing his brother senseless in front of the police station to reassure himself that he was alright.

"Dean, I'm fine." Sam squeezed his brother's hand and then turned to push his door open. "You can kiss me later."

"Outta my head, Sammy," Dean said with a fond laugh and followed him out of the car. He kept a watchful eye while his brother put his torn suit jacket back on and got his overcoat out of the trunk. He looked Sam over with a critical eye and then looked at himself in the reflection of the driver's side window and snorted a laugh. "Dude, we look like we got rode hard and put away wet."

Sam nodded and straightened his coat, making sure it hid any blood stains. "We should make this fast." He looked up at the red brick building and felt a frisson of fear work through him.

"Hey. It'll be fine." Dean patted his shoulder and led the way up the steps. "We're both armed and we run faster than the donut squad."

Sam was surprised into a laugh and slapped the back of his brother's shoulder. "Shut up before one of them hears you and shoots you on principle." He shook his head and followed Dean inside. The desk sergeant waved them past when they flashed their badges, not even bothering to ask any questions for which they were grateful. They stepped into the squad room, and there was a long, tense moment when the seven officers scattered at their desks stopped as one and stared at them.

"Hey, guys. Feds here to ruin your day," Dean said with a smile though his hand twitched toward the gun at his back. He forced himself not to draw a weapon and was relieved when the tension broke and everyone went back to what they were doing. He let out a long breath and heard Sam do the same beside him. "Sheriff in?"

Sam tensed further when the nearest officer rose with his hand on the gun at his hip. He looked over at his brother but Dean hadn't lost the easy smile, and Sam shivered when the officer gave a smile of his own and nodded, sure that somehow they had just narrowly avoided a blood-bath.

"Yeah, sheriff's in. He's not gonna be happy to see you, though." The officer shrugged and waved a hand. "Come on. Follow me."

"Ease up, Sammy," Dean said softly as they fell in step behind the officer. "Look like you're about to open fire or something."

"I'm fine," Sam protested and worked to loosen the tension in his shoulders. "How are you so calm?"

Dean snorted and leaned in a little as they crossed the bullpen. "I'm not. Almost pissed myself when he put his hand on his gun. Jesus."

That made Sam feel slightly better and he let out a breath. "This job is gonna give me gray hair or something. Crap."

Dean patted his shoulder once and then put his smile back in place as the officer waved them into an office and left. "Sheriff?" He took out his badge and flipped it open with Sam doing the same beside him. "Agent Turner. This is my partner Agent Bachman." He put his badge away and met the eyes of the older, silver-haired man behind his desk. "The bureau wants us to look into these murders of yours."

"Great." The sheriff flicked his fingers at the leather chairs and dropped into his own. "Like I don't have enough problems, now I'm gonna have half my men gettin' in a damn pissin' match with you two thinkin' they've got something to prove."

"Sheriff, my partner and I will do our best to stay out of your way," Sam reassured him and sat. "The bureau doesn't want us causing problems."

"Yeah, they tend to frown on that." Dean smirked. "So, what can you tell us? Any leads?"

Sheriff Walker shook his head. "Not a damn one. Whoever's slaughtering these poor bastards, we can't find anything to go on." He sighed and leaned back in his chair, looking at both men. "Honestly, I'm surprised it's taken this long for the feds to take an interest." He ran a hand through his hair and stood. "I'll get you the files. I'd appreciate it if you'd stay in here while I do. You know how it is."

"Don't need us rubbin' it in your guys' faces that they need a hand." Dean nodded and smiled when the sheriff glared at him. "We'll stay put."

Sam waited for the door to close behind them and then reached across to slap his brother's arm. "Dude, are you _trying_ to piss him off?"

"Can't help it," Dean said with a sheepish smile. "All this tension's makin' me crazy. I say we take the files and get the hell outta' here. We'll go through 'em back at the room."

"Yeah." Sam shook his head. "Just stop antagonizing the sheriff before he shoots you to shut you up."

"Lighten up, Sammy." Dean grinned and then rose when the door opened and the sheriff reappeared, holding a file box.

"This is everything we've got." The sheriff handed the box to the taller of the two agents. "It's not much, but knock yourselves out."

"Thank you." Sam smiled and took the box. "We'll let you know if we find anything." He took the man's nod for a dismissal and left the office. He had nearly reached the bullpen when he realized his brother wasn't behind him, and Sam turned around in surprise. He frowned, seeing Dean still standing in the door to the sheriff's office talking to the man inside, and he raised his brows in a silent query when Dean finally joined him.

"What?" Dean asked, seeing the quizzical look on Sam's face. "I was asking if he'd noticed any of the locals acting strange lately." He shrugged and plucked the box out of his brother's arms. "He said no more than usual."

"What happened to we don't split up?" Sam whispered and let his eyes roam the unfriendly faces as they crossed the bullpen again.

Dean snorted. "Dude, you were like five feet away and I could see you." He looked at the officers surrounding them and gave Sam a nudge to walk faster.

Sam didn't take an easy breath until they were back outside. He leaned on the hood for a moment and looked across at his brother. "I think it's getting to me."

"What?" Dean pulled open his door and slid the box across to the middle of the seat.

"The not knowing." Sam shook his head and got in the door. He rested an arm over the box so he could catch the sleeve of his brother's jacket once Dean got in. He gave a small laugh at himself and leaned in to the hand his brother slid over the back of his neck and the elephant hair collar they both loved so much.

"We could just taze everyone we meet and apologize later," Dean said as he pulled out onto the road and smirked when his brother laughed. "Well, it'd be entertaining anyway."

Sam leaned back into the touch and closed his eyes while they drove. Dean's fingers rubbing at the base of his skull soothed his nerves at least a little, and it seemed to be no time at all before the car had stopped and Dean's lips were brushing over his own. Sam 'hmmm'd happily into the kiss before opening his eyes with a smile.

"C'mon, little brother." Dean nipped lightly at Sam's bottom lip, pleased to see some of the tension gone from that spot between his eyes.

"Yeah." Sam got out and brought the box with him. "We've got research to do."

Dean snorted. "Yep. Research. Totally what I was thinking."

Sam rolled his eyes and then caught Dean's sleeve before he could head for the main stairs up to the inn. "No, this way. Remember? We've got our own entrance."

"Sweet." Dean strode around the inn and raised a brow at the tall, white picket fence that greeted them beneath the boughs of a huge cypress tree. "Not bad." He took out the room key and used it to open the gate, letting Sam go in ahead of him. Dean scanned the little courtyard as they crunched over the white gravel lining the path. He looked up to a gazebo beyond the little space and above the fence and frowned. "Well, it's not the most secure place ever." He waved a hand up to the gazebo. "Anyone could jump in from there. Hell, you could climb that damn tree and get over the fence."

Sam chuckled. "All anyone has to do is break that sad lock on the gate. Two seconds and they're in. I imagine it's more for privacy than actual security."

"Well, I do like the privacy." Dean slid up behind his brother and wrapped his hands around Sam's hips, pulling him in. "Of course, anyone in that gazebo's gonna get a show." He smiled when Sam shuddered against him and ducked his head in to nibble on his brother's neck. "Yeah, you'd like that."

Sam nearly dropped the evidence box when Dean's fingers tightened, pressing in to the sensitive flesh just inside his hip bones. "Jesus, Dean," he moaned and leaned back, trusting Dean to hold him up while teeth dragged across the back of his neck below the collar.

"Yeah." Dean pressed his hardening cock against Sam's ass and gave a shiver of his own. "Think we need to go visit our boys when we're done with this job." He slid his right hand down so he could cup Sam's cock and reveled in the shortened breaths he heard as Sam twitched. "See if they've got the stage up yet. Tie you up." Dean quickly moved and shoved his hand down the front of Sam's jeans and earned a strangled yelp as his hand wrapped around Sam's hot, throbbing dick. "Spread you out. Remind the crowd who you belong to."

"Fuck!" Sam's arms went weak and the box began to tip out of his hands. It was saved only by Dean pushing him forward and trapping it between Sam's chest and the glass door. He dropped his head back on his brother's shoulder behind him with a laugh. "Can we go inside before these files are all over the ground?"

Dean snorted a laugh of his own and nodded. "Yeah." He grinned as he stepped back and let Sam get a better grip on the box while he opened the door. He adjusted himself in his dress slacks and pulled the door closed behind them. I'm gonna give Bobby a call; see if he's got any more info from George."

Sam nodded. He turned his head and watched Dean stripping out of his jacket with a smile. "Grab the first aid kit, too."

"No shit, Sherlock." Dean pointed a finger at him. "I haven't forgotten that bitch cut you up. Get your shirts off."

Sam chuckled and set the box on the coffee table. "Yes, sir." He rolled his eyes at the lascivious grin Dean gave him for that and carefully eased his heavy coat off his wounded arm. He was surprised, actually, that it didn't hurt more and then he smirked; Dean was doing a good job of distracting him before they came inside. He tossed the coat to the couch and had his jacket half off when Dean came back in the room with a scowl. "What's the matter?"

"Can't find my phone." Dean shook his head. "Swear it was in my pocket."

"Maybe you left it in your other jacket." Sam tugged his suit jacket off and didn't miss the narrowing of Dean's eyes when the blood-spotted bandages on his arm were revealed. "It's not that bad, remember? Go find your phone." He had his shirt off and sat down on the leather couch with the box, toeing his shoes off when Dean returned from the bedroom. "Find it?"

"No, dammit." Dean strode to the door and then stopped, catching sight of his brother's stockinged feet. He grinned. "Two minutes."

"Wait!" Sam stood and moved quickly to his brother. "No splitting up, remember?"

"I'm just going to the…" Dean sighed and then nodded. "No, you're right. Come on. Better be in the damn car."

It wasn't in the car, and Dean was close to fuming when they closed themselves in their room again. "Son of a bitch!"

"It probably fell out of your pocket somewhere. Maybe when we were getting the crap beat out of us. Don't worry about it. We'll grab you another one tomorrow." Sam went back to the couch and grimaced. "And now my socks are wet."

"Should have put your shoes on." Dean smiled and dashed back into the bedroom to grab the first aid kit. He went back and sat beside his brother, enjoying the view of him shirtless and in bare feet, wearing nothing but his collar and his black dress slacks.

Sam chuckled and held out his left arm. "Focus, Dean."

"Right. Sorry." Dean gave him a look that clearly said he was anything but sorry and set to unwinding the bandage from Sam's arm. "Call Bobby."

"Yeah." Sam pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed Bobby's number while Dean worked.

"Kinda wanna go back and kick that bitch in the head, just once." Dean ground his teeth together, looking at the long, open wound in Sam's arm. "Jesus. I'm gonna clean this again before I stitch it."

Sam nodded and sighed. "Got Bobby's voicemail. Hey, Bobby. Give us a call back." He twitched as Dean poured alcohol over his arm and cleared his throat. "Uh, we ran into some trouble already with the locals. We're alright, but if you've got any more information from George, like maybe where the homo cthulus might be hiding, we really could use it. Thanks."

Dean threaded the suture needle and rested Sam's arm on his bent knee. "Must be busy playin' nursemaid."

"He hears you call him a nurse and I'm not saving you," Sam said with a laugh and then winced as Dean made the first stitch in his tender flesh.

"That'll teach ya'." Dean made quick, expert work of closing the long gash on his brother's arm, making the stitches as quickly as he could to minimize the pain, though Sam was taking it with his usual stoic face. The fact that they were both so used to getting stitched up by the other that neither one thought twice about it was kind of a sad commentary on their lives. He tied off the last stitch and gently wound a fresh bandage around his arm. "Done."

"Thank you." Sam watched his brother's fingers work and bit his bottom lip. The little bites of pain from the stitches combined with Dean's usual tender care, the rough pads of his fingers smoothing up and down the inside of Sam's arm between each stitch, had left him hopelessly turned on and his hips twitched in reaction to that. That he was turned on by getting stitched up by his brother was a different kind of commentary altogether, and not one he was going to think about too much.

Dean's eyes jerked up to Sam's and he gave him a lopsided smile. "Yeah, Sammy?" He enjoyed the slight flush that spread across his brother's face. He taped the bandage in place and ran a hand up Sam's thigh. "Don't wanna hurt you with this," he said, pressing his other lightly above the covered wound.

Sam smiled and leaned back into the leather couch. "So, we'll be careful. Besides, ya know, the whole pain thing… not really an issue here. You do know I kinda like it, right?"

"Hmm." Dean's smile widened, he did know very well, and he slipped to the floor. He sat back on his heels and brought Sam's right foot up off the floor. "Get these pants off."

Sam grinned and hastily opened his slacks. "Hell, yes." He slid the fabric and his boxers down his hips and chuckled as Dean pulled them off his legs and tossed them aside. He settled back again, feeling the leather of the couch warm against his skin and got an odd sort of pleasure out of the way it seemed to cling to him.

"Fuck, you're hot," Dean breathed, taking in the long line of Sam's naked body as he looked up at him. He picked his brother's foot back up again and curled his hands around his ankle and calf.

"Oh, shit." Sam shivered while Dean lowered his head to his foot.

"Oh, yeah." Dean grinned and then slid Sam's big toe into his mouth. He had never considered himself a foot man, but when it came to Sam, he was into every part of his little brother, even his toes. Especially the sounds Sam made for him when he indulged himself in this, and Dean smiled around his brother's big toe as a long, shuddery moan filled the room.

Sam let his head drop to the back of the couch and curled his fingers into the leather. The sensation of Dean's warm, wet tongue curling along the sensitive skin between his toes made his whole body shiver while tingles shot up to his groin. His cock lengthened and hardened and he moaned. "Shit, you're good at that."

Dean smiled. He ran his hands up Sam's calf to his knee and then dragged his nails back down to his ankle, watching as Sam's whole body trembled and those delicious little whimpers and gasps escaped him. He bit at the tender flesh in his mouth and finally let it go to move up to his ankle.

"Fuck, Dean. Fuck." Sam was panting for air. His cock twitched against his belly, leaking steadily and he wanted to take hold of himself, but one look into Dean's eyes told him that wasn't allowed. "Gonna kill me," he said with a breathless laugh when Dean moved up further and bit at the tender skin behind his knee. "Shit!"

"Love makin' you squirm." Dean settled on his knees against the front of the couch. He picked up his brother's legs one at a time and rested them over his shoulders until Sam was slouched down on the leather and his hips were tilted forward. He licked his lips and used his hands to separate the cheeks in front of him, revealing Sam's hole. He flicked his eyes up to his brother's and grinned. "Gonna make you scream, little brother."

Sam's back arched with the first swipe of Dean's tongue over his hole. "God!" He put his arms over his head, hanging on to the back of the couch and looked down to find Dean's simmering, green eyes locked on him.

Dean lifted Sam's hips a little more and licked around Sam's rim, biting gently until Sam all-out whined above him. He hummed deeply as he sealed his lips around his hole and sucked, making his brother shout and tremble in his grasp. It was addictive, taking Sam apart like this with pleasure, and Dean wasn't sure he would ever get enough. His own cock felt strangled in his pants, but he couldn't tear himself away from his brother to do anything about it. He licked and sucked, softening Sam's rim until he could thrust his tongue inside and had to tighten his hold on his brother's hips as he jerked and rolled them, trying to get more. A steady, panting chant of 'Dean, Dean, Dean' above his head drove him on and he sucked one of his own fingers into his mouth before thrusting it inside his brother along with his tongue.

"Ah, fuck!" Sam shouted as pleasure rolled through him in waves. His fingers burned with the grip he had on the back of the couch, the wound on his arm pulsing little shocks of ache with the effort, but he didn't care. He couldn't stop the flood of whimpers and whines that fell from his lips, not with Dean's tongue and lips sucking at his rim and his finger expertly rubbing around and around his prostate relentlessly. "Dean! God, Dean!"

Dean felt Sam's legs begin to twitch against his shoulders, his brother's heels digging into his back. He felt those shivers pick up speed until his brother's whole body was near thrashing. Dean used the finger he had inside him and flicked hard and fast over Sam's sweet spot while he sucked and bit at the edge of his hole, and moments later Sam was screaming as his body tried to shake itself loose from Dean's hold. He held on and didn't stop until Sam was reduced to desperate whines and inarticulate moans. He pulled his head back and looked up, grinning at the mess that covered his brother's chest. He had come and the evidence glistened on his skin all the way up to his chin. "Damn, Sammy," he panted.

Sam was barely coherent with shivery aftershocks still coursing through him but he managed to drop his hands from the back of the couch and paw weakly at his brother's shoulder. "Dean."

Dean opened his pants with shaking fingers, shoving them down far enough to free his cock and he surged up Sam's body. He gathered the come from Sam's chest and slicked it over his own cock, pulled his brother, now limp and completely fucked out, against his chest and thrust into his loosened, wet hole with a growling shout. "Fuck!" Dean curled into Sam, biting his throat above the collar. "Feel so good. Not gonna last."

Sam nodded and held on to him. Each thrust of Dean's cock inside him drove another whine from his mouth, his body still stuttering from his intense orgasm and the sensation of Dean being inside him pulled more aftershocks out of him until he was shaking again. "Come. Come, Dean! Fuck!"

The friction as he slid in and out of Sam, his skin feeling as though it were trying to hold him inside, sent Dean hurtling over the edge. He came on a shout with his teeth in his brother's neck. It seemed to go on forever until his arms gave out and he collapsed on to his brother with a grunt.

Sam spent a few moments just catching his breath and didn't mind Dean's weight on top of him at all. He smiled and wrapped his arms around his brother while Dean breathed heavily into his neck. "Still alive?" Dean grunted in reply and Sam chuckled. He rested his cheek in his brother's hair and closed his eyes. "M'kay. Nap… then research."

"Uh-huh," Dean muttered. He kissed the dark bruise he had left on his brother's neck and nuzzled his nose behind his ear with a sated sigh.

… Twenty hours away, Bobby woke with a groan. For just a second, he hoped the last day had been a bad dream but the ropes binding him to his chair and the pain still thumping from the base of his skull reminded him just how much trouble he and his boys were really in. "Balls."

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_To Be Continued…_


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Next chapter is already started. :P Thank you for all the wonderful reviews so far! Makes me happy you're all enjoying this even as I torture you. MWAHAHAHA Ahem. *runs away* 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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_Dean curled into Sam, biting his throat above the collar. "Feel so good. Not gonna last."_

_Sam nodded and held on to him. Each thrust of Dean's cock inside him drove another whine from his mouth, his body still stuttering from his intense orgasm and the sensation of Dean being inside him pulled more aftershocks out of him until he was shaking again. "Come. Come, Dean! Fuck!"_

_The friction as he slid in and out of Sam, his skin feeling as though it were trying to hold him inside, sent Dean hurtling over the edge. He came on a shout with his teeth in his brother's neck. It seemed to go on forever until his arms gave out and he collapsed on to his brother with a grunt._

_Sam spent a few moments just catching his breath and didn't mind Dean's weight on top of him at all. He smiled and wrapped his arms around his brother while Dean breathed heavily into his neck. "Still alive?" Dean grunted in reply and Sam chuckled. He rested his cheek in his brother's hair and closed his eyes. "M'kay. Nap… then research."_

" _Uh-huh," Dean muttered. He kissed the dark bruise he had left on his brother's neck and nuzzled his nose behind his ear with a sated sigh._

… _Twenty hours away, Bobby woke with a groan. For just a second, he hoped the last day had been a bad dream but the ropes binding him to his chair and the pain still thumping from the base of his skull reminded him just how much trouble he and his boys were really in. "Balls."_

**Chapter 4**

_\- One Day Earlier in Sioux Falls…_

Bobby scrubbed a hand over his face, dislodging his ball cap to fall to the floor. He groaned and rolled his eyes, leaving it where it had landed, and shuffled into the kitchen. "Not enough damn coffee to keep my old ass goin'." He poured himself a fresh cup of coffee and leaned against the counter, sniffing deeply of the brew before taking a sip and sighing. It had been a while since he'd had to nurse a cranky hunter, Winchesters notwithstanding, and he snorted a laugh. Bobby paused, hearing a groan from the other room and blew out a breath with a silent prayer for patience.

"Hang on, George!" Bobby called. He ran his free hand through his hair and walked back to the living room.

"Bobby?"

"Yeah, I'm comin'. Keep your pantyhose on." Bobby smirked and raised both brows when he found George leaning in the door to his living room. "How many times I gotta tell you to stay in the damn bed?"

George gave a stiff shrug and held on to the frame for a moment before he let go and limped cautiously across the room to the battered couch. He lowered himself down, slapping away Bobby's helping hand, and gave a sigh of relief as he settled into the cushions. "Ain't nothin' worth starin' at on the ceiling in there."

Bobby chuckled. "Yeah, alright. Here." He handed George his coffee cup when he caught the man staring avidly at it. "Don't say I never gave ya' nothin'."

"Any word from the Winchesters?" George asked and then sipped his coffee. He smiled and cradled the mug in his hands. "Damn, that's good."

"Naw, they should hit Tybee Island in a few hours." Bobby went to his desk and picked up his phone. A quick look at the display showed no messages and he shrugged, setting it back down. "Figure they won't be callin' 'til after they get in."

George nodded and sipped his coffee again. He shifted, trying to alleviate the pressure on his wounded leg and back. "Where're they gonna stay?"

"First Day's Inn in the good ol' U.S. of A." Bobby shrugged. "Where'd you stay?"

"The Inn," George said easily. He took another long pull of the coffee and then looked around. "Where do I put this? Coffee table's too damn far."

"I got it, now that you're done drinkin' my damn coffee," Bobby said, but he smiled to take the sting out of it. He collected his mug and headed to the kitchen. "How're you feelin'?" he asked. He stopped in the door and knelt down to pick up his ball cap.

"Much better."

George's words came from just behind him, startling Bobby, and something heavy cracked into the back of his head before he had time to stand up again. He heard his mug shatter on the floor and tumbled into darkness before his head hit the linoleum.

Bobby opened his eyes again and was surprised he even could. He groaned, blinking to try and clear his fuzzy vision while a black blob moved in front of him. "S'goin' on? Wha'?"

"Hit you too hard. I was afraid I… Shit."

Bobby's eyes finally focused and showed him George pacing in front of him. He was limping heavily on his bad leg and had one hand fisted in his hair. "George?" He tried to move, to stand up, and sucked in a breath as he felt the ropes wound around his arms and legs, binding him to his desk chair. George had moved it to the center of the living room. "Why'd you try an' crack my melon open? Talk to me, dammit! George!"

George stopped his frantic pacing and stared at Bobby. He took a step closer and leaned down into the hunter's face. "Supposed to kill you."

Bobby's head reared away from him in shock. "What?" He jerked against his restraints angrily. "Let me outta this damn chair! Now!"

"Don't wanna," George continued and began his pacing again. "Not… not gonna."

Bobby felt something dried and crusted on the side of his face and figured it had to be blood. His head was pounding and his stomach churning. Whatever George had hit him with, he'd made sure Bobby went down. "George, I need you to listen to me. Hey!" He waited until George's frantic eyes cut to his. "You gotta cut me loose, you hear me?" Bobby watched George's eyes slide away from him again and groaned. "George, dammit. What's got into you? What…" Bobby stopped, the words dying in his mouth as he watched the other hunter pace and limp and pull at his hair. "You got whammied," Bobby breathed it out in a horrified breath. "That thing, it got its claws into you, didn't it? Balls! I should'a seen it."

"No claws," George said suddenly and he stopped pacing. He balanced on his good leg without really thinking about it and stared down at the floor. "It's the eyes, Bobby. The eyes just… it's like you fall in and fall and fall and fall!"

"George…"

"And there's nothing!" George yelled it over Bobby's voice as he spun to face him. "It sucks you in and you fall forever! I'm falling!"

"No, you're not! George! Look at me!" Bobby bellowed and thrashed in the chair until George seemed to focus on him again. He had a feeling that George's control was only holding on by a fraying thread. "You need to let me loose. Come on, now. Just let me outta this, and I can help you."

George shook his head furiously and staggered away from Bobby until he banged his hip into the desk. He turned and rested his hands on the cluttered desktop. "Supposed to kill you."

"Dammit," Bobby muttered. He started twisting his arms in the ropes, trying to find any give in them, but George had wrapped them tight. His fingers were beginning to tingle. He was beginning to think his only hope was in talking down a man who had already been shoved over the edge into insanity. Bobby froze when he saw George pick up his phone. "Put that down," he ordered as George ignored him and flipped it open. "What are you doin'? George?"

"Think your Winchesters, they…" George broke off and put a fist to his temple, digging the knuckles painfully into his skin for a moment. He stopped and went back to the phone in his hand. "They need a better place to stay."

"Where are you sending them?" Bobby sucked in a breath while fear for his boys rolled through him. They weren't likely to question any text that came from his phone. "What the hell are you doin'?"

George began to chuckle as he pressed send and slid the phone into his pocket. "In the Inn. They're gonna…" He frowned and looked around the living room as though confused. "I stayed at the Inn. I'm at the Inn… I'm… no."

"What inn? George, dammit! Where did you send them?" Bobby shouted it desperately.

"The Tybee." George moved closer to Bobby. "It waits in the dark." He knelt clumsily next to Bobby's chair and fisted one hand into Bobby's hair as he forced his head back. "It's like a spider." He snorted and drew Bobby's own knife from his belt, resting it along the older man's throat. "Spider with… like a squid. Sits there and waits and eats and eats and eats and…"

"If you're gonna kill me, could you do it before Act Two of the damn Cuckoo's Nest, please?" Bobby groaned as the blade began to bite into his neck. He suffered for his boys, knowing now they were walking straight into a trap, and for being unable to warn them of the danger they were in. He waited for George to cut his throat and get it over with, but a second later the knife was jerked away, but before Bobby could breathe a sigh of relief, George's fist slammed into the side of his head.

The next time he woke, Bobby looked blearily around as he raised his aching head. The light was dimming in the big window, telling him he had been out for hours. "Dammit," he moaned softly and pulled at the ropes holding him to his chair again.

"They're hurt."

Bobby jerked his head to the left at the sound of George's voice and instantly regretted it as his vision swam. One too many knocks to the head was taking its toll. "Who's hurt?" he grumbled. He ran his tongue around his dry mouth and groaned. "An' for the love o' God, can I have a damn drink? Feel like I been suckin' on a cactus." His vision finally cleared and he saw George sitting cross-legged atop his desk. Everything on it had been pushed to the floor.

"Toying with them," George said softly.

Bobby stared at George's hands where he was turning something over and over in his palms. "With who?" he asked, though he had a sickening idea he already knew.

"They left you a message." George frowned and looked down at the phone in his hands. "Sam. The taller one. Sam, right?"

"Yeah." Bobby nodded slowly. "He's just a kid, George. They both are. Let me help my boys. You don't wanna do this."

"Sam left a message." George held up the phone for a moment before he went back to worrying it. "The locals." He shook his head. "Buckets of crazy. No. No. I'm not… dammit."

Bobby took a deep breath to try and settle his nerves while George rambled on top of his desk. "George, you need to let me up. Let me help. You know I can help." He put every ounce of sincerity and caring into his voice that he could, knowing that his boys' lives might depend on him being able to talk the other hunter back to himself, if only for a few minutes.

"S'why I came," George whispered it and finally met Bobby's eyes. He slid off the desk and went to his knees when his bad leg gave out, but the pain barely registered and he shuffled closer to Bobby. "S'in my head, Bobby. Got in." He rapped his knuckles against his own temple hard enough to bruise. "Climbed in like a… like a rat. Scratching and scratching."

Bobby jerked his head away when George began scratching his nails at his scalp. "But you're fightin' it, George. Cut me loose."

"Deputy." George nodded to himself. "Tried to zap me." He grinned and waggled a finger. "But I'm faster than some ten-penny lawman. Twisted his arm an' he zapped himself."

Bobby gave a slow nod. "That's… that's good, George. That's real good. One hand. Just gimme one hand loose."

George frowned and rubbed a spot between his eyes. "Zapped me too, 'cause I was still holdin' on to him. Not as bad. Knocked him cold, but I walked… didn't get me much." He leaned forward and caught Bobby's face in his hands. "But enough! I could think!" He let go again and sat back on his knees. "Still falling though. Still in my head."

"George. My hand." Bobby wiggled his left hand in front of George and didn't dare breathe when the man slowly took hold of the ropes securing his arm and started to pull.

"Screamed at me," George whispered as he tugged at the ropes. "Still screamin'. Kill. Kill. Kill."

Bobby groaned when George's hands suddenly dropped away from the ropes. "Just a little more. Come on. You're a hunter! Hold it together, George!"

"NO!" George roared the word. He rose in a rush, grabbed the bottom of Bobby's chair and flung it onto its side. "I should kill you!" He leaned over the side of the chair, pulling the knife free from his belt, and thrust the point up beneath Bobby's chin just enough to break the skin.

Bobby tilted his head back as far as he could to escape the blade, but the impact with the floor and the movement were too much for his abused skull and he lost consciousness yet again.

Bobby woke with a groan. For just a second, he hoped the last day had been a bad dream but the ropes binding him to his chair, now once more upright, and the pain still thumping from the base of his skull reminded him just how much trouble he and his boys were really in. "Balls." He peered around the darkened room. The only light shone from the kitchen and was just enough to outline George's shadow. He was sitting on the floor beneath the window. The couch had been shoved half across the room, a good portion of Bobby's library was scattered across the floor, and his favorite lamp lay on its side with the bulb smashed and the wires from the filament inside trying to glow. It looked as though George had gone on a rage after he'd knocked him out. He sighed and let his head drop to his chest, grateful at least that he was sitting upright again, not to mention alive. Some part of George was still in control enough to care if he was comfortable, at least as far as he was able in the confines of his madness.

"S'getting… harder." George's voice whispered through the room. He sounded tortured.

Bobby lifted his head again and struggled to focus on the man. "That thing still in your melon?" He saw George give a short nod. Bobby pulled his left arm against the ropes and froze; there was give to them that hadn't been there earlier. Either George had loosened them more than he'd thought or the trip to the floor in the chair had done it. Bobby worked to keep any sign of his hope off his face and slowly began sliding his left hand back along the arm of the chair. He flexed the muscles in his forearm beneath the bindings, and his hand moved another half inch.

"M'tired, Bobby," George fisted both hands in his hair. The knife lay on the floor in front of him. The voice in his mind promised him that if he would just do this one thing, he could rest. "So tired."

"I know." Bobby put more effort into freeing his arm because he could hear a sort of finality in George's tone. Whatever internal struggle the man was fighting, he was losing, and Bobby knew he wouldn't survive it. "It's alright, man." He grunted softly as his left arm came free and jerked his head up to see George, but the other hunter had yet to lift his head and hadn't seen it. Bobby cautiously reached over and began untying the knots on his right arm. It was difficult; his fingers were sore and stiff from being restrained so long, but he managed it, sliding his right arm loose with blood from the broken skin from his earlier struggles to slick the way.

"Can't… can't do it anymore." George let go of his hair and reached down to pick up the knife. Clumps of his own hair stuck to his fingers as he grasped the blade. "Sorry. Sorry, Bobby."

"Yeah." Bobby readied himself, knowing he was out of time. "Me too." He waited until George started to push himself to his feet and Bobby lunged forward out of the chair. His legs were still tied down and the back of the chair flipped with his movement, slamming into his lower back. He grunted but caught what he had been aiming for. His hands closed around the barrel of his favorite lamp. Bobby swung the top around and jammed the exposed wires from the bulb into George's stomach. There was a brief flash of red light, the crackle of electricity, and George howled and fell to the floor while the odor of singed flesh filled the room.

"Holy… shit," Bobby gasped. He let the lamp thump the floor and reached instead for his knife, still held in George's fist. He pried it loose and scrambled to free his legs when George gave a low moan. "Come on, dammit." He rolled awkwardly to his side and stretched to reach the ropes still holding him. "Gettin' too damn old for this happy horseshit." Bobby had to fold himself near in half to reach his legs, and by the time he sawed through the ropes, George was coughing behind him. He dragged his legs free of his chair and used the desk to pull himself to his feet. Bobby sagged down over the desk as his head spun, but he made himself move. He leaned around the side, fumbled the top drawer open, and stuck his hand inside as George moaned and rolled to his back.

"Bobby?"

"Dammit, where are you?" Bobby cursed and felt a surge of relief when his hand finally closed around his taser. "Gotcha." He pulled it out and had it ready when George drunkenly pushed up so he was sitting. "George, don't make me zap you again."

George blinked up at him in confusion. "Why am I on the…" His eyes widened and his mouth fell open as his memories of the last several days flooded through his mind. His expression became one of horror as he looked up at the battered hunter leaning on the desk above him. "Oh, my God. Bobby! Jesus, what'd I do to you?"

Bobby scowled. "That really you this time? I mean you-you, not whammied you."

George stared and then gave a weak laugh. "Uh, yeah. Just me in here now. Ow." He ran one hand over his head and winced. "Christ, my head hurts."

"Tell me about it," Bobby said ruefully. He gave a groan and slumped further over his desk. "Not enough aspirin on the damn planet for this headache."

"Shit." George pulled his right leg under him to stand and yelped when he tried to move his left. He ended up bent over his leg and holding his hands lightly over the wounds there. Blood was sleeping through the sweatpants Bobby had loaned him. "Really did a number on myself, huh?"

Bobby snorted a laugh. "On us both. You remember what you did with my phone?"

George thought about it and looked around the trashed room. "It's here somewhere. Oh, shit! It has to be here!" His injury forgotten, he fought to his knees and started picking up books and papers, looking for the cell phone. "Sam called you not long ago. He left another voice mail and a text, wanting more information about the homo cthulus." He looked up at Bobby worriedly. "He said they got into it with the locals. Bobby, I'd bet my eye teeth one or both of 'em's hurt."

"Balls, ok. Find the phone." Bobby set the taser aside, feeling sure that this time George was really George. "I'm gonna be mighty unhappy if you go 'Here's Johnny' on me again, so knock that shit off."

George gave a pained laugh and nodded. "Yeah. Trust me." He rubbed a hand over the new ache in his stomach from being electrocuted with the lamp. "Thanks, by the way, for zappin' sense back into me."

"You're welcome. Anything for a friend." Bobby smirked down at him and together they searched the wreckage for his phone. He wrapped one hand around his head. "Feels like that time I let Rufus talk me into huntin' a wendigo in a brewery."

George snorted. "What happened?"

Bobby grinned and sat gingerly on the arm of his couch. "Never did find the wendigo. Pretty sure he was lyin' and just wanted a drinkin' buddy." He chuckled. "Think we accounted single-handed for every bottle of stout in the place. Don't remember much after that."

"Sounds like that old coot."

"Watch who yer callin' old, grandpa." Bobby looked at the rope burns on his wrists and groaned; they hurt now that he had seen them. "How'd it get you anyway? The homo cthulus."

George shook his head and started sifting through a pile of books at the base of the shelves. "Came outta my room, and it was just… waiting for me." He settled back on the floor with his bad leg stretched out in front of him and ran a hand over his face. "Didn't even say anything. Damn thing just touched my face and…"

"Whammy," Bobby finished.

"Yeah. Fuck, it's ugly too." George shivered with the memory. "Got a face like an octopus ate its way in and its wet, like drippin' water."

"Hey, you still good?" Bobby asked, seeing the shiver pass through the man's body, and he suddenly wished he hadn't left the taser on the desk.

"Sorry, yeah. Hey! I got it!" George plucked Bobby's cell phone out of the pile and held it up.

"Thank, God." Bobby grabbed the phone and dialed Dean. He listened to it ring only once before kicking to voicemail and he hung up. "Dammit, Dean's phone must be off." He dialed Sam instead.

"Oh, man." George leaned back against the bookshelves with guilt making his gut churn. "And I sent them there. God, Bobby. I texted 'em from your phone and told 'em to stay in that damn inn!"

"Not your fault, George." Bobby cursed when Sam's phone went to voice mail like his brother's. "Sam, dammit. One of you boys needs to call me back ASAP. George was whammied. You're in creature central, and you need to get the hell out! I'm comin' to you, alright? Dammit, don't get dead."

"God," George groaned. "Bobby, I'm so sorry." He used the shelves behind him and began getting to his feet. "I'm comin' with you."

"Like hell." Bobby moved and slipped under George's right arm. "Stiff wind'd knock you on your ass right now. I'm gonna check your stitches and then hit the road. Come on and don't argue with me."

"You're concussed, Bobby. No way you can drive a whole damn day." George gave an angry growl as Bobby continued to drag him back toward the bedroom. "You're gonna get yourself killed."

"I'll be fine." Bobby eased George down to the bed. "I gotta check on my boys, George. I'll make it."

_**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-** _

Sam sighed and stretched his arms over his head. He opened his eyes, expecting to find Dean beside him, and frowned. He didn't remember coming to bed, but he was laid out across the king-size bed and there was no sign of his brother. He sat up, scratching his nails through his hair. "Dean?" He slid to the side of the bed, stood, and padded out naked into the living room. "Dean, are you here?"

"Sammy?" Dean emerged from the bathroom, toweling his hair dry and smiled. "Got some serious bed-head goin' there, little brother."

Sam slapped a hand up to his hair and rolled his eyes. "Wonder why that is?"

Dean grinned. He went over to his brother and wrapped his arms around him, pressing their chests together and not caring that he wasn't dry yet. "You're all wet now, Sammy." He smiled when Sam shivered in his arms.

Sam shook his head and leaned in to his brother. "What time is it?" he asked as he brushed their lips together.

Dean hummed. "Wish I could say it's fuck-Sammy-in-the-awesome-tub time, but…" he kissed Sam slowly until his brother was panting and then stepped back with a sheepish smile. "We should probably find the fugly and kill it."

Sam chuckled and dropped his forehead to his brother's. "Yeah, suppose we should." He slid a hand down to Dean's bare ass and gave it a squeeze. "That'd work a lot better if you put clothes on."

Dean laughed and let him go. "Yeah. Yeah."

"I'll see if Bobby called." Sam went over to the couch with a smile for how they'd spent last night. He checked the table and didn't see his phone. "Huh. Swore I left it there," he muttered and went to feel down the back and sides of the leather couch and still didn't find it. "What the hell?" He got down on his knees and checked the floor, then leaned down to look beneath it.

Dean came out of the bedroom, zipping his jeans, and stopped cold with a grin at the sight of Sam. "Dude, how're we gonna go anywhere with you naked and ass up on the floor? Come on, man! I'm only human!"

Sam gave a short laugh and stood. "Did you move my phone?"

"Huh?" Dean shook his head. "No. You left it on the table."

"Not there now." Sam looked around the room and shrugged. "I can't find it."

Dean scowled angrily. "What the fuck? First my phone goes missing and now yours?" He went back into the bedroom and snatched a t-shirt out of his bag, pulling it on quickly. "That's too much coincidence to be coincidence." He paused with a chilling realization. "That means someone was in here while we were asleep."

"Shit." Sam felt goosebumps run up his arms and followed Dean into the bedroom to find his own clothes. "How did we sleep through that?" In fact, he began wonder how he had ended up in bed at all, having no memory of that.

Dean shook his head. He tugged on a flannel and then went to the weapons bag. He took out his gun and one of the tasers. He took out the other and tossed it on the bed along with Sam's gun. "Arm up, Sammy." He was furious with himself. They could have been killed in their sleep like helpless idiots. Which then begged the question, _why_ hadn't they been killed? The only conclusion was that the son-of-a-bitch was toying with them. He tucked the weapons away and pulled on his boots while Sam finished getting dressed. "Let's go talk to the pink guy."

Sam grudgingly tucked the taser into his jacket pocket and nodded. "Maybe someone new checked in last night." He followed his brother out and up the spiral staircase to the house above. It was quiet. It had been quiet since they had checked in, now that he thought about it. He slid a hand into his pocket to hold the handle of the taser when they reached the desk at the front and found it empty. "Mr. Pink?" Sam called.

"Bell." Dean reached out and slapped his hand on top of the old-school desk bell several times, making it ring loudly.

Sam went behind the desk to a door. "Might be his office. Maybe he's sleeping."

"Right." Dean watched the hall behind them warily, every nerve on alert.

The door opened easily and Sam stuck his head inside. "Mr. Pink?"

Dean rolled his shoulders, trying to ease the tension and looked over at his brother. "Any sign of him?"

Sam looked down at the floor. "No. Some water spilled in here," he said, noting the wet spot in the carpet, but the office was empty of all but a tidy desk in the corner. "Maybe we're overreacting."

"Dude. Your phone did not get up by itself and walk away." Dean waved his brother out from behind the desk and nearly jumped when the front door of the inn opened behind them. "Holy crap."

"Mr. Singer?" Daryl Pink smiled at both men as he eased inside, balancing bags in each arm. "Can I help you?"

Dean stopped his brother when Sam instinctively went to help the man with his bags. "Did anyone come into our room last night?"

"What?" Daryl asked in surprise. He went to the counter and slid his bags onto it. "Certainly not! Other than yourselves, I'm the only one who's been in the building since yesterday afternoon. Marta hasn't been feeling well, and she hasn't been in for a few days." He sighed and gestured to his bags. "I just popped out to get some supplies to fix you breakfast and lunch. I'm not the best cook ever, but I can fry an egg like nobody's business."

Dean stared at him and try as he might, he could see no signs of deception on the man's face. "Well, crap."

"What's got you boys so upset?" Daryl closed the door of the Inn and gave the boys his full attention as they had obviously been rattled by something.

"Our cell phones are missing." Sam slipped around Dean and pulled one of the bags from the desk. "Kitchen?"

"Phones? Oh, right. Back there and to the left." Daryl smiled up at Sam and collected the other bag. "Are you sure you didn't leave them somewhere? Happens all the time." He chuckled. "I lose mine all the time. Haven't even seen it for three days."

Dean watched his brother turn into the kitchen ahead and had a feeling. "Since, say, about the time Marta the cook stopping coming to work?"

"What? No. no. I'm sure I dropped it somewhere." Daryl shook his head and set his bag down on a black counter top. "Just here, please. Thank you."

Sam set his own bag beside and looked at his brother; they were thinking the same thing. "So, Marta doesn't live here?"

"Goodness, no." Daryl smiled. "I've tried for years to get her to move in. It's not good for her to live alone out there like she does."

"Out there?" Sam prompted.

"Oh, she has a little house next to Fort Screven." Daryl tsked and shook his head. "It's a very lonely place and I know she'd be happier here, but she's stubborn. Perhaps I'll check on her tomorrow. If you boys don't mind waiting, I'll get started on breakfast."

"Don't cook on our account." Dean caught Sam's elbow and slung an arm over his shoulders. "Me and the missus were gonna go sightseein'. Probably won't be back until after lunch." He laughed when Sam elbow him in the stomach.

Daryl chuckled at their antics and waved. "Well, alright then. Maybe tomorrow. You boys have fun today!"

"Oh, we will." Dean let Sam tug him into the hall.

"You know, sometimes I really wanna punch you in the face," Sam said, voice heavy with irritation.

"Just playin' for the audience, little brother." Dean waited until they were out of sight of the kitchen and caught Sam in his arms. He kissed him soundly until he felt Sam's tense muscles relax and Sam smiled against his lips.

"You're such an asshole." Sam gave him a shove and started back down to their room. "So, we're checking out the fort, right?"

"Lonely fort in the middle of weird central?" Dean snorted. "Hell, yeah we are. Maybe we'll find our phones while we're there." It still burned him that someone or something had managed to come in to their room and not wake them. "And we're sleeping in shifts from now on until this job is finished. We're gonna have to keep watch."

"Yeah." Sam sighed. He missed it when he couldn't sleep wrapped up in his brother.

_**-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-** _

"Wow," Dean said as they stood atop a small rise behind the parking lot and got their first glimpse of Fort Screven. "That's a lot of real estate to search." He turned to his brother and slapped a hand into his shoulder before he could speak. "And don't suggest we split up."

"Wasn't going to." Sam smiled and started down the hill. They had found Marta's little house first. It was barely more than a shack and had been empty. "Maybe she's in here too. Marta."

"Shackin' up with the squid-head. Kinky." Dean grinned and shrugged at the expression on Sam's face. "What? Some chicks dig seafood."

Sam laughed and shook his head. "You're ridiculous." His good humor quickly faded as they approached the impressive stone fortress. It rose up in dark stone tiers. The walls looked as though they were built to withstand a nuclear explosion, and he remembered something he'd read days earlier. "You know the U.S. army lost a nuke here back in fifty-eight?"

"Wait. As in a nuclear bomb?" Dean stared in surprise. "How in hell do you lose a bomb?"

Sam smiled as the climbed the stairs to what looked like a main entrance. "It was a training exercise. The bomber carrying it lost it somewhere around here, or just off the coast. They were never able to find it." He looked over at Dean and quirked a brow. "They call it the Tybee bomb."

"Jesus. This job just gets better and better." Dean reached the doors ahead of his brother and pulled out a flashlight before he shoved one side of the heavy, metal shutter open. "Stick close."

"Yeah." Sam sobered and took out his own flashlight. He blinked to adjust his vision as they stepped out of the late morning sun and into the dim interior. It smelled of mold and mildew and seawater from the ocean that was only a half mile distant.

"Tasers," Dean said as he took out his own. "We're not gonna have a repeat of yesterday."

"Agreed." Sam drew his taser and followed his brother into the fort. "I think we should head left."

"Naw. Right." Dean turned in his chosen direction. "You see that overlook on the far end? Bet money it's holed up near there."

Sam scowled at being overruled without discussion, but he swallowed it back. It was no time to argue with his brother when they had no idea what was waiting for them. Besides, he thought, Dean's instincts for hunting were brilliant in general. Their footsteps echoed as they walked and he worked to lighten his step and muffle the sound hearing Dean do the same ahead of him. He turned to look behind them, playing his light along the dark walls and felt the chill of the stone settle in to him. He shivered in his jacket and turned forward again. Sam stopped and stared. Dean had vanished.

"Dean?" Sam called softly. He broke into a run as fear for his brother went through him and lunged through the door into the next section of the fort. "Dean!"

"Whoa!" Dean turned and backed up in surprise when Sam ran up behind him. "You see something?"

"Where the hell were you?" Sam demanded. "Are you alright? Did it get you?"

"Dude, I'm fine. What gives?" Dean brushed his brother's hands away from his chest. "Sam, you see something?"

"You vanished." Sam backed up a step and looked at his brother. "You were just gone. I couldn't see you."

"Bullshit, Sammy. I was two feet ahead of you." Dean frowned and reached out to his brother.

Sam's eyes widened in fear, and he lurched back from his brother as Dean reached for him with the taser. "Oh, God. Did it get you?"

"What? Sam you're not making any damn sense!" Dean took a step closer and blew out a breath in frustration as Sam backed away again. "Sammy, I'm fine, alright?"

Sam shook his head. "No. The missing phones. You could have done that while I was sleeping. I wouldn't have woken up for you. I don't even know how I got into bed! Oh, God." He stared at his brother, his lover, in dawning horror. "And yesterday at the precinct. You were talking to the sheriff alone."

"Sammy, come on!" Dean held his arms out, trying to calm his brother. "You sound crazy. You get that right? The paranoia's getting to you."

"The locals who jumped us. They didn't hurt you." He held his left arm out for a moment in reminder of the wound there. "It's like they weren't even trying."

"Sammy, no," Dean pleaded.

"I'm sorry." Sam said it with tears in his eyes. "God, Dean. I'm so sorry."

"Hey. This job is getting to me too. Come here. It's alright." Dean held his arms out to Sam, trying to get him to come closer. "We're ok."

Sam nodded with his vision blurring. "We will be. I'm sorry."

Dean smiled as Sam stretched a hand out and had only a moment to feel the shock as Sam's taser connected with his palm instead of his hand. He distantly heard his voice cry out and then darkness took him away.

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_To Be Continued…_

_Point of Interest: The Tybee Bomb is a historical fact. That really happened. LOL_


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Work and a cold from the jaws of Satan conspired to make this one take longer to finish. Lol Sorry about that! 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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_Dean held his arms out, trying to calm his brother. "You sound crazy, you get that right? The paranoia's getting to you."_

" _The locals who jumped us. They didn't hurt you." He held his left arm out for a moment in reminder of the wound there. "It's like they weren't even trying."_

" _Sammy, no," Dean pleaded._

" _I'm sorry." Sam said it with tears in his eyes. "God, Dean. I'm so sorry."_

" _Hey. This job is getting to me too. Come here. It's alright." Dean held his arms out to Sam, trying to get him to come closer. "We're ok."_

_Sam nodded with his vision blurring. "We will be. I'm sorry."_

_Dean smiled as Sam stretched a hand out and had only a moment to feel the shock as Sam's taser connected with his palm instead of his hand. He distantly heard his voice cry out and then darkness took him away._

**Chapter 5**

Dean woke sluggishly. He moaned softly and began to panic until he felt Sam's familiar hands sliding up his chest. "S'mmy?"

"It's ok, Dean."

Sam's voice helped wake him further and then he remembered. Dean jerked his head up, eyes going wide, to stare at his brother. Sam was sitting in his lap, lit by sunlight streaming in from an open window to their left, and Dean could feel his own hands behind him, cuffed tightly to something in the near empty room. "Sam? What's happening?" He pulled his arms and winced as the metal of the cuffs bit into his wrists. "Let me outta this."

Sam shook his head and cupped Dean's jaw in his hands. He looked deeply into Dean's eyes and then rested their foreheads together. "I'm so sorry I didn't see it sooner."

"See what? Dammit, Sammy. Let me go!" Dean met his brother's eyes when Sam lifted his head up to look at him again.

"It didn't work. The taser." Sam smoothed his thumbs over his brother's cheeks. "I tried twice just to be sure. I'm sorry."

Dean's jaw fell open and he suddenly understood why his whole body ached. "You zapped me again?"

Sam nodded. "I didn't want to. God, all I could think of was the bloody bones, and you and…"

"Sammy, hey." Dean leaned his head forward to catch Sam's attention. "It's ok, buddy. I'm fine. I'm me, man. You gotta let me go."

"Not until you're free. I'll get you free. I promise." Sam kissed his brother and leaned back.

Dean felt horror curl in his gut with the realization that somehow, the homo cthulus had gotten to his brother. "Sammy." The light of madness flickered in the blue-green of Sam's eyes as Dean looked, and he wondered how long it had been festering there while he hadn't noticed.

"I won't let it get you," Sam whispered. He felt moisture well up in his eyes. "It's in your eyes. I can see it now." A tear rolled down his cheek. "I love your eyes."

"Sammy, don't. Baby, please," Dean pleaded while he twisted his wrists in the cuffs. "I need you to listen to me."

"I can't stand it. Not in your eyes." Sam brushed his fingertips over Dean's lids gently.

Dean sucked in a breath when Sam dropped a hand to waist and drew the small blade from behind his belt buckle. "Sammy, please. Don't do this. It got to you. It got you and we can fix it, but you gotta let me go."

Sam shook his head and rested the point of the blade against the corner of Dean's left eye. "It can't have your eyes. They're mine."

"Sam." Dean's voice was tortured. "You're gonna kill me." And beyond his fear for his own life, and perhaps even worse, was the sure knowledge that Sam would never survive it if he regained his senses and remembered what he had done. He knew the guilt would tear his little brother apart and Sam would follow him into death.

Dean's words seemed to stir something deep inside him, and Sam closed his eyes. He felt his hand pressing the point of the blade against Dean's skin, and he lurched back with an indrawn breath. "Falling."

"What?" Dean frowned as he watched his brother seem to sway in his lap. "Sammy?"

Sam looked down at the knife in his hand, confusion on his face giving way to horror, and he flung it away with a clatter. "I don't…"

"That's it, buddy. Sammy. Come back to me." Dean worked harder at freeing himself, feeling his own blood slick the way as he tried to slide one hand free of the cuffs.

Sam scrambled to his feet, suddenly feeling as though the floor were swaying beneath him. He looked down at his brother and then at his hands. "Have to…" He trailed off, uncertain as to what he had been about to say.

"Sam, just think," Dean urged him, suffering for whatever was happening in Sam's mind. "You can beat this. You're strong, baby. And smart. God, you're like a walkin' damn library. That tentacled bitch is _not_ stronger than you are!"

"Save you," Sam whispered. He reached behind him and pulled the gun from the back of his belt before looking at his brother again as the sensation of spinning and falling eased and he felt secure again. "I have to save you. I love you."

Dean shook his head, feeling tears gather in his own eyes as Sam leveled the gun at his chest. He took a deep breath and met Sam's wet eyes. "Sammy, this isn't your fault," he spoke through a throat choked with emotion. "Need you to remember that, ok? You didn't do this." Dean pulled harder to free his hands as Sam cocked the hammer back. "I love you." He closed his eyes, still trying to free a hand, but feeling sure that it was all over. He waited for the click of the trigger, but instead heard a new sound; a foreign scuff from somewhere beyond his brother. Dean's eyes flew open in time watch a dark shadow loom in the open door. A second later Sam howled in pain and fell to the floor where he twitched for several moments before going still just as his right hand convulsed on the gun. The sound of the shot was deafening, and Dean flinched, expecting the feeling of hot lead tearing through his chest.

"Relax, young man. You're still alive."

Dean let out an explosive breath and looked up as the dark figure stepped into the sun. He was trim, with brown hair that brushed the collar of a tweed jacket. "Who the hell are you? Hey!" he yelled as the stranger knelt beside his brother. "Stay the fuck away from him!"

"Relax. If I'd wanted him dead, he would be." He smiled at Dean with warm, brown eyes and held up his hand for Dean to see. "Taser. Standard police issue, well… it used to be."

Dean saw then the fine filaments of wire connecting the taser to barbs in his brother's shoulder. "You zapped him." He slumped back against the wall and then narrowed his eyes. "How'd you even know to zap him?"

The man carefully removed one of the barbs from the senseless boy at his knees and looked up. "Theo Linn. Hunter. Pleased to meet you."

Dean's scowl deepened, just then registering the faint English accent in the man's words. "Where the hell did you come from?"

"Oh, lots of places." Theo recovered the second barb and tossed them aside. He popped the head of his taser loose, letting the spent cartridge fall to the floor before he pulled a fresh one from a leather messenger bag at his hip and fixed it in place. "I had a feeling you were hunters when I saw you coming out of the police station." He rested his fingers against the neck of the younger man and smiled. "He's alive. Just unconscious." He rose and moved over beside the elder of the two, then knelt next to him. "I'm going to get you out of this. It'd be nice if you didn't kill me in thanks."

Dean nodded and leaned forward with his eyes locked on his brother. "I'm Dean; that's Sam."

"Partners?" Theo asked as he got a look at the handcuffs holding Dean in place and pursed his lips at the blood coating the man's wrists and hands.

"Yeah." Dean didn't elaborate.

Theo produced a pair of picks and had Dean free from the cuffs in short order. He quickly moved back and allowed the man room to reach his partner. "Sam, you said? Sam should be himself again when he wakes." He smiled when Dean glanced up at him. "My taser is specifically tuned to a frequency that interrupts the control of the homo cthulus. Took me years to fine-tune, and it's completely safe for civilians. Well, the odd pacemaker may short out, of course, but in the grand scheme of…" he trailed off when Dean's green eyes flicked up to him with annoyance. "Right. Stop babbling. I'll just wait over here where you can see me."

"Thanks." Dean, ignoring his own hurts, gently lifted until he had Sam's upper body cradled against his chest, audience be damned. "Sammy," he called softly and bent to watch that face he loved so much. He held his breath as Sam scrunched his face up and smiled when those eyes fluttered open. "Hey. You hear me?"

"Hold on to him," Theo offered quietly, so as not to startle Sam.

Dean didn't bother asking why. He simply slid his arms around his brother more tightly as Sam's gaze finally focused on him. "Sam. Hey, are you in there?"

"Dean?" Sam's whole body ached and he slowly convinced his arms to move, raising them up to grasp Dean's shirt around his back. "What…" His eyes went wide and the room seem to vanish around him as a slew of memories of the past two days flooded into his mind.

"Shit!" Dean held Sam tightly to him when his brother shouted out in seeming pain and began to convulse. "No, no, no."

"It's alright." Theo dared a step closer. "It's the memory rush. He's remembering everything that's happened since the homo cthulus touched him. It's a little… unnerving. It will stop in a moment."

As if his words had been a cue, Sam suddenly went limp against Dean's chest. "Sammy, please." Dean dropped his face into his brother's dark hair and listened to him gasping.

Theo watched them together, the way Dean cradled Sam so desperately, the way Sam's hands had seemed to seek out his touch, and he smiled. "So, true partners then, yes?" He held up a hand when Dean lifted his head to shoot him a warning glare. "I would never judge." In truth, as Sam's eyes opened once more and Dean leaned down to rest their foreheads together, he found them beautiful.

"Jesus, Sammy," Dean breathed. When he felt steadier and felt Sam's right hand fisted in the back of his jacket again, he leaned away so he could see him. "Are you alright?"

"It was at the inn." Sam's voice was soft, and he felt like he was waking from a nightmare. "When… when we first got there, and the phone… I went out to tell the manager. It got me at the bottom of the stairs."

Dean's eyes went wide. "But we were only separated for like a minute!" He seethed inwardly that he had been right there and had failed to protect his brother, or even know he was in danger. He pulled gently at his brother's shoulders and managed to get him sitting up, leaning against his bent knee. "What happened?"

"It touched my hand." Sam frowned and looked down at his hands and then back to Dean. He subconsciously began scratching at the back of his right hand and jumped when Dean grabbed a hold of it to stop him. "It was waiting. It just… I didn't even see it at first. I put my hand on the railing, and then… I couldn't do anything. I couldn't even call for you. It's like… like I went to sleep and I was dreaming, and it just melted back into the shadows. Fuck." He ran a hand over his face with the memory of that touch, how its skin had been gray and slick. "Felt like my hand was doused in cold water, and then just… nothing."

Dean frowned, thinking. "The floor was wet."

"What?" Sam looked back up at him.

"When I came after you. The floor was wet. I thought there was a leak, but it was that thing." Dean felt a surge of righteous, protective rage for the thing that had hurt his brother. "Christ, I was right there! If I hadn't stopped to put my fucking pants on!"

"Dean, stop." Sam leaned into his brother, bracing his forehead against Dean's temple and closed his eyes. "It wasn't your fault. We couldn't have known it would be hiding out at the inn."

"He's right, you know. You shouldn't blame yourself." Theo smiled when Sam gasped and his eyes jerked over to him. He held up his hands. "It's alright. Nice to meet you properly, Sam." He held up his homemade taser. "Sorry about before, but it had to be done."

"That's Theo." Dean squeezed Sam's shoulder. "He saved our asses, and he knows we're hunters. And, uh...'partners'."

Sam's eyes shot to his and then back to Theo. "Oh, uh… hi."

"As I told Dean, I don't judge." Theo tucked his taser away and cleared his throat. "We should probably get out of here before it sends someone after us. Homo cthulus rarely leaves anything to chance."

"Shit. He's right. Think you can stand?" Dean asked and smiled when Sam took hold of his arm.

"Yeah." Sam only flinched slightly when Theo appeared on his other side and aided Dean in getting him to his feet. He swayed once as his head swam and then steadied. He looked over at Dean, and all the blood suddenly drained from his face. "Oh my, God! I tased you! I… Dean, I'm sorry! Are you alright?"

"Hey. Hey! Give us a sec," Dean said to Theo and pulled Sam in again. "I'm fine. Dude, I'm good, alright? Knocked me out, but I'm good. I swear." He smiled sadly when he realized Sam had one hand pressed hard over his heart, like he was measuring the beats. "No damage done." He caught Sam in a firmer grip when he shuddered and looked up to find Theo watching curiously. He cleared his throat. "About a year ago, I got nailed by my own taser on a hunt. Almost killed me. He, uh… it was bad."

Theo nodded gravely. "I understand."

"And then I… I was about to…" If anything, Sam's face went even whiter as he remembered the gun in his hand focused on his brother's chest… remembered starting to squeeze the trigger. He felt a wave of nausea wash over him, and his gaze shifted back to Theo as he fought back the tears trying to spill over at the thought of what he had been about to do - had almost done. "Thank you. I… thank you."

Theo gave him a wry smile. "It's alright, young man. You're both alright. I'm only glad I got here when I did." He paused. "Any sooner, and it wouldn't have been nearly as dramatic."

Despite the situation, Dean couldn't contain an amused snort, and If Sam's short laugh sounded just one step away from a sob, no one said anything. He took a deep breath and shook his head.

"Sorry. I'm good," Sam said and straightened, annoyed with himself for letting his emotions get the better of him. "We need to go."

"Yeah, but where the hell do we go to?" Dean asked. He ducked away from his brother to collect Sam's gun and found both of their tasers as well. He handed Sam his weapons and brushed a hand over the back of his neck when Sam's hand shook around the taser.

"The inn should be safe enough I would imagine." Theo followed the two men when they headed for the door. "It will know its link to Sam has been broken, and, knowing that you're hunters, it will need to find a safer place of refuge."

"How do you know so much about these things?" Dean demanded when they reached the exit. "And how do we know you haven't been whammied too?"

Theo grinned and held out his left wrist as he pulled back his sleeve. He wore a bulky, black leather band around his wrist. "Designed this myself. It's a compact unit that delivers a charge at the same frequency as my taser every twelve hours." His grin turned sad while they crossed the gravel path toward the parking lot. "Like you, Sam, I've been a victim of a homo cthulus before. I don't often have backup, and I needed a way to be sure I could free myself from its influence."

"That's amazing." Sam took the man's arm and ran his fingers over the thick back. "How do you know it won't just make you take it off?"

Theo chuckled and rapped his knuckles against the leather. There was the hollow impact of metal beneath it. "Solid iron core. It doesn't come off. I welded it on. Call me paranoid if you like, but I had to be sure. Works brilliantly if you don't mind getting zapped twice a day. That part got old really fast."

Dean smirked as they reached the Impala and he saw his brother's face. "You wanna take it apart and find out how it ticks."

Sam flushed and released Theo's arm. "Uh, yeah, actually. It's a great idea."

"I've been hunting these beasts for most of my life." Theo sighed. "I've lost a number of very good people to them." He looked around at the green grass and the hulk of the fort over the hill. "This is the first time I've ever had to track one to America, though. I rather like it." He patted a hand on the hood of the sleek, black car and his smile became a grin. "And your cars."

"Oh, man." Sam gave a soft laugh as he opened his door. "Don't get him started." He slid into his seat and pulled his door closed. It hit him again, stronger than before, as Dean got in beside him and the Impala's engine rumbled to life - he could have killed his brother. He could have been the reason Dean was dead, and the idea of living in a world without Dean in it… Sam didn't realize he'd been gasping until Dean's hands were on him and he was being pulled across the seat into his brother's arms. "Shit. Shit. Could have killed you. I could have…"

"You didn't. I'm alright," Dean reassured him, breathing the words into Sam's ear as he held him while the panic subsided. He didn't blame Sam a bit for having a little breakdown; it didn't take a genius to know what he was feeling. "I'm right here."

"Is he alright?" Theo asked from the backseat, watching with concern while Dean comforted his partner.

"Yeah, he'll be fine in a sec." Dean shifted Sam against his right shoulder and managed to get the car moving and away from the fort while his brother held on to him, breathing raggedly into his neck.

Sam allowed himself one more minute of wallowing against his brother before he pulled away and sat up on his own. He ran a hand over his face, feeling ridiculous. "Sorry." He cleared his throat and shook his head.

"There's nothing to be sorry for, Sam," Theo assured him from the back seat. "Being controlled by the homo cthulus is… incredibly invasive. It's not something one gets over easily."

Dean glanced at Theo's face in the rearview. "That sounds like the voice of experience."

Theo nodded. "Once. A long time ago. People I cared about…" He shook his head and leaned back into the seat. "You're lucky, Sam. The creature didn't have the chance to use you to kill someone before you were freed."

Sam shuddered at that and crept his hand over the front seat to hook his fingers in the hem of his brother's shirt. He knew just how close it had been. "I'm sorry." He turned in the seat so he could see his brother and Theo. "How many of these things are there in the world?"

"Oh, never very many." Theo smiled reassuringly. "You can generally track a homo cthulus through history. Just look for a moment of madness with a high death toll." He chuckled. "When Nero burned half of Rome to the ground in 64 AD? That was a homo cthulus. I actually found a scroll from, well, an early version of a hunter. It detailed the creature's effects on Nero and most of Rome and how the madness seemed to spread like sickness until the city was burning."

Dean glanced away from the road long enough to see the light of curiosity burning in his brother's eyes and chuckled. "Sammy's gonna want every detail you've ever collected, man. He's like a walking library." He chuckled. "Think you just made him drool."

Sam tossed a 'bitch-face' at his brother. "Shut up, jerk."

Theo smiled and could see the kindred spirit of a collector of knowledge in Sam's eyes when the younger man looked back at him. "I'll be happy to let you read my journals, Sam. Knowledge is power, most especially when dealing with these insidious creatures."

"Thanks." Sam settled back into his seat and scrubbed his hands over his face. It was going to take a while before he could shake the knowledge that he had nearly killed his brother and the insanity that had convinced him he was doing it to save him. He narrowed his eyes as he looked out at the road and took a deep breath. He was not going to let the creature get the drop on him again; not if he could help it.

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Dean strode up the steps to the Tybee Inn and it didn't look so idyllic anymore. His eyes skipped across every window as if expecting the homo cthulus to lunge out at them. He saw Sam point to their private entrance and shook his head. "No. I wanna get a read on the owner. I mean, Japanese porn monster sets up in his basement, he's gotta know something."

Sam snorted and glanced at Theo to see an answering smirk on his face. "He might not know anything at all." He stopped and put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "We can't just zap the guy. If he hasn't been brainwashed by the creature, he'd call the cops on us and then what?"

"Dammit." Dean turned back and looked at Theo. "Got any wisdom here?"

"Basic mathematics." Theo smiled.

Dean scowled. "Say what?"

Theo chuckled. "Those people who have been touched by the homo cthulus don't have access to some of the higher brain functions. The creature has no need or understanding of them. Ask him to do some basic multiplication. If he can't, odds are he's been touched."

"Math." Dean snorted and pulled open the door. "You realize this is America, right? Half the damn country can't point it out on a map. Just sayin'."

Sam chuckled and slipped inside ahead of his brother. He went to the desk and grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, jotting down a few quick multiplication problems, then he rang the little bell. "We'll find out," he said as Dean and Theo stepped in behind him. He didn't need to look to know that Dean already had a hand in his jacket and wrapped around the taser just in case. He smiled when Daryl Pink appeared in his office door. "Hey."

"Oh, hello boys!" Daryl smiled and nodded. "Found a new friend, I see? Will you be needing a room, sir?" he asked of the gentleman behind the boys.

"No, thank you. Just visiting." Theo gave Sam's elbow a nudge.

"Right, uh." Sam smiled again and pushed the paper toward Daryl. "I know this is going to seem strange, but could you answer these for me? It's, uh… kind of a bet, I guess."

"A bet?" Daryl looked down at the simple mathematic equations on the paper and shrugged. "Well, alright." He chuckled. "I'm going to assume I don't want to know what the bet's about."

They all watched as Daryl bent and quickly and correctly answered the problems Sam had given. Sam let out a relieved breath. "Thank you. You have no idea."

"No problem, Sam. Glad to help." Daryl handed the paper back with a bemused little smile. "Is there anything else I can do for you? I'm making dinner this evening. You should join me." He held out his hands. "Otherwise, I'm likely to be eating alone, seeing as Marta is still out sick."

Dean winced, having a pretty good idea that the missing Marta wasn't sick so much as caught in the creature's insanity. "Uh, yeah. Think we'll do that, actually. Come on. Thanks, dude." He thumped a fist on the desk and headed to the back of the inn and the spiral stairs down to their suite.

"So, he hasn't been… what? Contaminated?" Sam asked as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

Theo shook his head. "Unlikely." He plucked the piece of paper out of Sam's hand and looked at the problems. He chuckled. "And it seems our innkeep is surprisingly good at mathematics. A square root? Really?"

Sam flushed lightly and ducked his head. "Well, you said 'basic'. Wait." Sam put a hand on his brother's arm as Dean opened the door to their suite. He turned to look back into the short hall beyond the stairs. He scowled. "I think…"

"Sammy?" Dean caught his arm before he could move away. "Hey. You still with me?" he asked, suddenly worried that Sam was slipping back under the creature's control.

"I'm fine," Sam reassured him with a smile. "But I think we need to look in the wine cellar." He freed his arm and walked cautiously past the stairs and around the corner. He found a door with a plaque labeling it the wine cellar. He felt a frisson of fear race up and down his spine as he took hold of the handle and turned. It was unlocked.

Dean pulled his taser out and saw Theo do the same beside him. "Careful, Sam."

"It's… I don't think it's here anymore." Sam pushed the door open and eased inside. He wrinkled his nose. "You smell that?"

"Yeah. It's like saltwater and mildew." Dean moved around his brother and put his taser away, exchanging it for his gun. "Hey, Theo. Don't suppose you know a good way to gank one of these bastards?"

Theo nodded. "You take their heads, immerse them in holy water in the center of a devil's trap, and burn them." He shrugged when Dean flicked a glance at him. "Personally, I prefer blessing a jar of gasoline and immersing the head in that. Makes things go much more smoothly."

Dean was surprised into a laugh. "Dude, I like you."

"Shit." Sam stopped at an opening in the racks of dusty wine bottles and moved aside. "Our phones are here."

"What?" Dean moved around his brother and looked down as his feet splashed in water. The floor at the back of the wine cellar wasn't just wet; it looked like someone had left a faucet running somewhere. He could smell salty ocean water and something dank and rotted along with it. He saw a small table in the middle of the aisle and atop it lay both of their phones, glistening wetly in the overhead light. "How the hell…?"

"Me. It was me." Sam put a hand over his face. "I remember now. I… I took your phone and mine and… I brought them here. It told me to. Shit."

Dean grabbed the phones and groaned. "Well, they're both waterlogged so we're not makin' any calls with these right now. Dammit. Bobby must be goin' out of his damn mind by now." He shoved them both in his pocket, and the three of them made quick work of proving the cellar was empty of the creature.

Sam couldn't seem to lose the sensation of his skin crawling. They went into the suite, and he searched it just as thoroughly as the wine cellar, checking the doors and the few windows to make sure they were secure before he finally set his taser down and let out a breath. "Can't believe that thing got me so easily."

"One touch is all it takes, Sam." Theo picked one of the comfortable looking armchairs and sat down. He pulled the strap of his bag off over his head and set it in his lap. "They really are the most insidious creatures." He glanced around the room. "This is much better than my hotel. I feel a tad jealous."

"Yeah." Dean gave his brother a nudge. "Dude, sit down. Get your geek on. I'm gonna get us some beers."

Sam dropped onto the end of the couch wearily. "Grab the first aid kit. Your wrists are a mess." He flinched a little saying that, because he was the reason his brother's wrists were torn up.

"It isn't your fault." Theo gave Sam a small smile as he opened his bag. "I know it's little comfort, but it is the truth. I know what you're feeling right now." He sighed, pulling several journals from his bag. "My hands are responsible for several deaths because of the homo cthulus. It was a long time ago, but… still." He shook his head and handed the journals to Sam. "You'll learn to forgive yourself for the things done with your body while not in your control… eventually."

Sam nodded solemnly. "I hope so. Thank you for these."

"Most of the information in there I've collected over the years from other sources as well as my own research." Theo shrugged. "The problem with homo cthulus is that it pre-dates humanity. From what I've been able to learn, the creatures are ancient; dinosaur ancient."

"Which makes fighting and killing them even harder. Of course." Sam looked up as Dean returned and sat beside him with the first aid kit.

"Keep reading. I can do this," Dean assured his brother with a smile. He stripped off his flannel and started cleaning his right wrist with the wet towel he had gotten in the bathroom. "I've had worse and you know it, so lose the aneurysm face, Sammy."

Theo snorted a laugh at the look on Sam's face. "You two are by far the most charming American hunters I've ever met. Usually, they're rather…"

"Rugged? Manly?" Dean supplied with a smirk.

"I was going to say rough and uncultured. Some, downright nasty." Theo chuckled. "There was another hunter here, I think, but I didn't find him before he left town." He frowned. "At least I hope he left, and he isn't…"

"He did." Sam looked up from the journal he had opened. "He was attacked and hurt badly."

"Yeah, he's stayin' with another hunter friend of ours." Dean shook his head. "The locals messed him up before he got out of here. Probably gonna be limpin' for life."

Sam watched his brother bandaging his own wrists and looked up to find Dean watching him. "What?"

"Knock it off." Dean gave Sam a soft smile and raised his brows. "Not your fault, remember?"

Sam ducked his head and started leafing through the journal again. "It's not that easy."

"Is this your own research?" Theo asked, picking up one of the books from the coffee table.

"Yeah. Bobby and the other hunter gave us all that." Dean started packing away the first aid kit and then froze as the soft but unmistakable sound of metal scraping in a lock came from the door to the stairs. "Sam," he hissed.

Sam nodded. He set Theo's journals aside and grabbed his taser from the table as he stood. He nodded toward the outside door and went to cover it while Dean and Theo moved to watch the other. "Locals?" he whispered.

Dean shrugged. "Gonna find out in a minute." He looked over and saw Theo with his homemade taser out and ready. He tracked his eyes back to the door as the handle turned and tensed with his own taser in his hand. The door eased open and then swung wide, and Dean stared in surprise as Bobby lunged into the room, a taser held in each hand. "Bobby? What the hell?" He looked as though he had been attacked with bruises and a split lip adorning his face. "What happened to you?"

"Back up, son," Bobby warned as Dean moved toward him. "I hate to do this to you boys, but…" He held up the tasers and gave a dirty look to the stranger on his left. "Gotta make sure you're clean."

"Bobby, we're good," Dean reassured him. He scrubbed a hand through his hair and lowered his own taser. "It got Sammy, but he's free now thanks to this guy."

"An' I'm supposed to take your word for it?" Bobby shook his head. He looked over and watched Sam set a taser onto the coffee table. "You boys haven't been answering your phones, and George, well, he got whammied. I never told you to stay here. He did."

"Shit." Sam took three steps toward their father-figure and stopped, raising his hands as Bobby held the taser toward him. "Bobby, I'm sorry. I…" he blew out a breath and sat on the couch. "If you need to zap me to trust me, I'm alright with that."

Theo sighed. He turned his taser in his hands and held it out to the older, grizzled hunter handle first. "Here, sir. I'm Theo Linn, and I think we all understand that you won't be trusting us until you're sure. This one is specially modified to counter the creature's influence."

Bobby frowned, pocketing the weapon in his left hand first. "Theo? I've heard of you." He took the odd little taser in his now free hand, taking a moment to appreciate the design of the thing and the fact that it had clearly been cobbled together by hand.

"Dammit, Bobby." Dean groaned, wanting to argue, but in the end he tossed his taser to the coffee table and sat beside his brother. "Just get it over with." He gave the older man a smile and held up a finger. "And just so you know, soon's your done checking us, I'm zapping you." Dean grinned. "I promise to feel real bad about it too."

"Aw, hell." Bobby watched Theo as he crossed to sit in a chair and looked at his boys who both watched him trustingly from the couch and hated himself a little for what he was about to do. "I hate this job."

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_To Be Continued…_


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I'm already hard at work on chapter 7 so have no fear. MWAHAHAHA… ahem. :P 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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_Sam took three steps toward their father-figure and stopped, raising his hands as Bobby held the taser toward him. "Bobby, I'm sorry. I…" he blew out a breath and sat on the couch. "If you need to zap me to trust me, I'm alright with that."_

_Theo sighed. He turned his taser in his hands and held it out to the older, grizzled hunter handle first. "Here, sir. I'm Theo Linn, and I think we all understand that you won't be trusting us until you're sure. This one is specially modified to counter the creature's influence."_

_Bobby frowned, pocketing the weapon in his left hand first. "Theo? I've heard of you." He took the odd little taser in his now free hand, taking a moment to appreciate the design of the thing and the fact that it had clearly been cobbled together by hand._

" _Dammit, Bobby." Dean groaned, wanting to argue, but in the end he tossed his taser to the coffee table and sat beside his brother. "Just get it over with." He gave the older man a smile and held up a finger. "And just so you know, soon's your done checking us, I'm zapping you." Dean grinned. "I promise to feel real bad about it too."_

" _Aw, hell." Bobby watched Theo as he crossed to sit in a chair and looked at his boys who both watched him trustingly from the couch and hated himself a little for what he was about to do. "I hate this job."_

**Chapter 6**

Bobby sat on the floor of the boys' room and groaned, holding his head in his hands as the aftereffects of the electric charge left him. "That sucked."

Dean chuckled. He handed Theo's taser back to him and knelt beside Bobby. "You wanna get up?"

"No." Bobby raised his head and looked up at his boys. "You really alright? Both of ya'?"

"We are now." Sam leaned down and took one of Bobby's arms while his brother took hold of the other. "Come on. Let us help."

"Too old for this shit," Bobby grumbled as they lifted him to his feet. He would have gone right back down on a wave of dizziness if they hadn't held him up and led him to the couch.

"You look like shit, man," Dean informed him as they lowered Bobby to the couch to sit.

"Yeah, well, George weren't exactly firin' on all cylinders there for a while." He rolled his eyes and leaned back into the couch. "Tied me to my own damn chair. I ain't proud o' that." He held up a hand at the concern on both boys' faces. "I'm fine. He's fine. I zapped him and he's back at my place sleepin' it off." He snorted. "Actually, the stubborn bastard's probably tearin' stitches out walkin' around tryin' to find the whiskey stash."

Sam reached out and feathered his fingers over Bobby's hairline above his left eye. "Knocked you a good one here."

"More than one, yeah." Bobby caught the boy's arm before he could pull away and looked at the bandage wrapped there. "What the hell happened to you?"

"Locals." Dean rustled up another beer and handed it to the older hunter. "We managed to get out of it without killing any of them, but it was close. And then Sam…" He shook his head when Bobby's eyes landed on the bandages covering his wrists. "That creature got to him right here. Theo saved both our asses."

Bobby looked over at the other man who had remained quiet the whole time and gave a nod of his head. "Thank you for savin' my boys."

Theo felt a smile crease his face and returned the nod. "It's my pleasure."

"So, you know this guy?" Dean asked and sat on the edge of the table while Sam settled on the couch with Bobby.

"I've heard of him." Bobby took a sip of his beer and winced, seeing Sam rubbing his fingers through the aftereffect of being tazed. "Didn't think you left Europe."

Theo nodded and rubbed a hand over the cramped muscles at the back of his neck. "I don't generally. There's plenty to keep a hunter busy on the other side of the pond." He smiled. "But I can't ignore a homo cthulus, and, to my knowledge, this is only the second time one has operated here in the states."

Sam looked over in surprise. "This has happened here before? How come we don't know about it?"

"It was rather a long time ago." Theo reached over and plucked his journal from Sam's hands. He opened it, flipping through the pages, and then handed it back. "It happened in the early nineteen hundreds in Niagara Falls. An inventor created a device that allowed him to, well, _zap_ the entire town en-masse and break the creature's hold over them. Quite ingenious. I wish I could have met him."

"Holy. Crap." Sam looked up from the notes on the page in awe. "Nikola Tesla. The inventor was Nikola Tesla."

Theo nodded, delighted with Sam's reaction and held up his wrist. "This device is based on the concepts he created, actually. He called the devices 'arc lamps'." He sighed. "Tesla lobbied to have them installed nationwide in case the creatures should resurface, but, of course, he wasn't on very good terms with the American government and they ignored him. It certainly would have made this job far easier if they'd listened."

"We could free the whole damn town at once." Bobby shook his head. "Damn, that'd be nice. Wouldn't have to worry about the locals tryin' to gut us while we hunt this thing."

"You're not hunting anything but a bed." Dean stood again and took the beer from Bobby's hand. "You look like hammered crap. We'll hit the research while you get some shut-eye." He hooked a thumb over his shoulder. "There's a second bedroom back there with a queen bed and your name on it."

Bobby chuckled tiredly but he didn't argue. He stood and scrubbed his hands over his face. "Alright, but only 'cause my eyes are crossin' right now. Left my bag out in the truck."

"We'll get it," Dean assured him and gave the older man a nudge toward the spare room. He grinned as Bobby held up a middle finger before vanishing into the room and closing the door. Dean sat back down beside his brother and leaned against his shoulder. "Kinda glad Bobby's here."

Sam nodded, smiling and caught the fond expression on Theo's face before he smoothed it away. "He's kind of like our father-figure."

"Having him around makes you feel safer. I understand." Theo stood and straightened his shirt. "If you gentlemen don't mind, I think I'll return to my own lodgings."

"You should get your stuff and come back here." Sam traded glances with Dean and got a nod. "It'll be safer for all of us if we stay together until we find the homo cthulus."

Theo looked at them and considered. He coughed. "You know, I've been on my own for quite a while now, but…" He sighed. "You're right of course. Shouldn't take me more than thirty minutes to get my things and return."

Dean stood as Theo left and caught his brother's arm. "Come on. Let's go grab Bobby's stuff."

Sam rose and groaned. He shook out one leg and then the other. "My legs still feel like Jello from being shocked."

Dean snorted with amusement. "Tell me about it." His humor quickly faded as guilt flowed across Sam's face. "Hey, knock it off. That's not what I meant." He pulled Sam in and steered him toward their private door. "You shockin' my fine ass ain't exactly a bad thing. I probably deserved it a little."

Sam was startled into a laugh and hip-checked his brother when they reached the door. "More than a little some days."

They found Bobby's truck parked down the street from the inn and recovered his bags. They were both bristling with tension on the street, feeling as though eyes were watching them from behind every tree, ever curtained window down the street. Dean shook himself once they were back inside. "Man, I hate not knowin' who the bad guys are." He tossed Bobby's bags on the coffee table and grabbed one of the chairs, dragging it over to block the door.

"I'll pull that dresser in front of the other one." Sam stuck his head in Bobby's room, reassuring himself that the elder hunter was alright and smiled to find him sprawled diagonal across the bed, still wearing his boots and trucker's hat. He pulled the door closed again and quickly pushed the dresser over to the interior door. Sam kicked off his shoes and sat back on the couch to start going through Theo's journals in earnest while Dean rattled around the little kitchenette to get the coffee brewing. He became so lost in the reading that he flinched when a steaming mug appeared in front of his face.

"Dude." Dean laughed and waited for his brother to take the mug. "Didn't even hear Theo come back five minutes ago, did ya'?"

Sam looked up, chagrined, to find Theo chuckling as he set a bag on the floor beside the coffee table. "Uh, no. Think I was starting to drift off while reading. Hi, Theo."

"It has been quite a day, Sam. That's only understandable." Theo smiled more broadly when Dean held out another mug to him. "Oh, cheers, Dean! Bless you. I need caffeine."

"So, find anything new in there?" Dean asked his brother, tapping the top of the journal and he smirked. "Or were you sleep reading?"

"Shuddup." Sam rolled his eyes fondly. "Uh, a lot about how the creatures interact with humans. All those torn up bodies weren't actually creature kills."

"Ah, yes." Theo sobered and sat in the remaining chair. "It's the brainwashed who are responsible for the violent deaths."

"What?" Dean eased a hip onto the arm of the couch beside his brother. "I thought big ugly was feeding or something?"

"He is." Sam held the journal up to his brother to let him read for himself. "But the creatures feed on, well, insanity."

"Insanity and fear," Theo corrected. "That's why they inspire it in their victims. The more lunatic someone touched by the creature becomes, the bigger the feast. It's a psychic vampire, more or less."

"It said in there that you think the creatures actually pride themselves on not having to kill their victims themselves." Sam frowned. "So it's more than just a beast. It's sapient."

Theo nodded seriously. "At least on a level with a human, yes. Though we don't seem to register as anything other than playthings to them."

Dean scanned the pages Sam had pointed out and shook his head. "We're gonna have to risk getting whammied again to get close enough to kill this thing." He handed the journal back to his brother and groaned. "Got any of those arc lamp things in your bag?"

Theo chuckled. "Alas, no. Besides, the electrical charge from that, or even our tasers, won't do more than annoy the homo cthulus. The real concern now is that it will know it has lost its influence over Sam." He saw understanding on both of their faces and a flash of what could only be protective rage in Dean's eyes at the mention of a threat to his brother. "Through its connection to him, it knows you're hunters, and with the loss of that connection, it will be driven to end you before you can kill it." He bent to take his taser from his bag, set it in his lap, and leaned back in the chair, kicking his feet up on the coffee table. "You should get some rest. I'll take first watch."

Dean set his coffee down and took Sam's from him as well. "Yeah. Good idea. Theo, thanks."

"But the research…" Sam protested as he was pulled up.

"…will still be there later." Dean gave him a nudge to their bedroom and waved at Theo before he closed the door. He pulled Sam around and wrapped him in his arms.

Sam sighed and melted into Dean's embrace. "The creature," he whispered. "It might send the locals after us here to try and kill us."

"Yeah." Dean released Sam and pulled his shirts off over his head. "So, we're gonna catch whatever shut-eye we can before the crazy comes-a-knockin'."

Sam quickly removed his own clothes. He left them in a pile on the floor and crawled into the bed. He let out a pleased groan when Dean grabbed him and rolled them both into the middle of the big, king-size bed, their naked bodies sliding together warmly. Sam huffed out a soft laugh. "We're not alone in here anymore. Can't exactly go getting our freak on, dude."

Dean grinned and leaned up to look into Sam's eyes. He smoothed his fingers along his jaw. "Then I guess we'll have to be quiet." He leaned down and kissed Sam, rubbing their lips together before he licked along them. Dean rested his forehead against his brother's and tightened his arm around him. "I need you, Sammy." The words came out more desperate than he had meant them to, but it was the truth. "That was too fucking close. Fuck."

Sam clutched his own arms around his brother when he felt him tremble and heard the pain in his voice. "I know." He kissed Dean in sudden desperation and gasped as his brother slipped between his legs, rubbing their lengthening cocks together. He curled one leg up around Dean's hips to pull him closer. "Wanna feel you, big brother."

Dean groaned and nodded. He felt Sam push something into his hand and looked to find a bottle of lube. "How…"

Sam smirked. "Knew what I wanted the second that door closed."

"Fuck, I love you." Dean set the bottle aside and leaned back a little. He smoothed his hands up his brother's ribs softly enough to make Sam twitch with the sensation. He stopped to pinch Sam's dusky nipples into peaks and chuckled at the loud, gasping moan he earned. "Shh. Gotta be quiet, Sammy. You do that?"

Sam shivered as Dean's hands slid up his chest and took his arms, gliding across his skin until his hands were against the headboard. He nodded eagerly. "No promises."

Dean brought his hands down and hitched Sam's legs up, spreading his knees wide as he raised his brother's ass up off the bed and into the air with his legs over his shoulders. "That's an order," he breathed heatedly and loved the way Sam's eyes darkened in challenge. His smile became feral when Sam brought a hand down long enough to stuff a corner of the blanket into his mouth as a makeshift gag before taking hold of the headboard again. "Oh, fuck. That's hot."

Sam tossed his head back and bit down on the blanket with the first swipe of Dean's tongue over his hole. He moaned softly and thrashed his head when he felt Dean shove his tongue inside him.

Dean gave a low groan of his own as Sam's muscles clenched around his tongue. He tightened his arm across his brother's hips, feeling his brother's hard cock leave a wet trail over his forearm and slipped his free hand up to meet his tongue. He loved listening to the sounds Sam made for him; the gasps and whines, the pants, the screams. He wished suddenly that they were alone so he could hear them all, but this had its merits too. Dean looked down across the expanse of Sam's chest, lifting his head to do so, and saw his brother's head thrown back. Sam's eyes were closed tight, and he smiled when Sam's jaw tightened around his mouthful of blanket as Dean slipped a finger into the spit-wet channel.

"So sexy, Sammy," Dean whispered reverently. He lowered Sam's hips back to the bed and fumbled for the lube. He slicked his fingers and bent over his brother's waist. The sound Sam made as Dean lowered his head over his cock was a muffled whine, and Sam's eyes were desperate.

Sam's entire body tensed like a bowstring when Dean's plush lips closed over the head of his cock. It took every ounce of willpower he had not to call out as the pleasure rolled through him. He felt tears gathering in his eyes when Dean's fingers returned to his entrance, slick and firm as they drove into him and settled over his sweet spot. If not for the blanket, he'd have been cursing and begging. He couldn't stop the needy sob that escape him when Dean's fingers slid out of him and his cock out of his mouth. He opened his eyes to watch Dean climb up his body.

"God, Sammy." Dean tugged the blanket out of his brother's mouth and nudged his cock against Sam's entrance. "I love you. You know that, right?"

Sam nodded furiously and did moan more loudly than he should have as Dean covered his mouth with his own. "Dean." His brother's name emerged in a hitching, drawn-out sound as Dean's cock slid slowly inside him, inch by inch. He opened his eyes as Dean's work-roughened palms slid around his jaw to cradle his head. "Love you."

"Hold on to me," Dean whispered and began a slow rhythm, rocking his hips back and forth while Sam's long arms wrapped around his back.

Sam felt every inch of Dean's cock slide slowly out of him and he shivered with sensation as it eased back into him. He clutched Dean to him and gasped against his mouth. It felt so good, so right, to be connected to Dean this way after how close he had come to losing him forever and he felt tears prick at his eyes again. He looked up at his big brother and cupped a hand around the back of his head as he stared into his green eyes.

"I can't lose you," Dean admitted in a hoarse whisper as emotion swamped him.

"I'm here." Sam pulled Dean's head down to his again and kissed him. He loosed a soft cry into his brother's mouth as Dean thrust harder inside him and hit his sweet spot in a burst of pleasure.

Dean wanted to hold on to the slow pace, the almost tortuous rise of pleasure, but Sam undid his careful control. He curled his fingers in the back of Sam's collar and kissed him until his own head was spinning with lack of oxygen. He felt Sam's legs tighten around his hips and his body begin to tremble. Dean moved harder into him, taking his air from Sam and giving it back as they kissed.

Sam was drowning in his brother; his smell, his skin, his touch. His cock rubbed just right against Dean's stomach as his brother thrust into him, and only Dean's mouth muffled the shout he couldn't stop as he came suddenly between them.

Dean felt Sam begin to come, felt the warm splash of his release on his stomach and followed him quickly over. His back curled with the force of it as his hips stuttered into Sam again and again. The world seemed to swirl away from him as the orgasm rolled through him, and he had no idea how long it had been when he came to himself. He was pressed down onto Sam's chest, his cock still nestled inside his brother, and Sam's frantic breaths rocked him as they gusted in his ear. "Shit," Dean breathed and turned his face into his brother's neck.

Sam made a lazy, humming sound, too spent to even move. He drifted on the pleasure they had brought each other. He moaned in protest when Dean finally softened and slipped out of him, loathe to lose that connection.

"Hey." Dean convinced his shaking arms and legs to move. He rolled to his side, gathering Sam in against his chest and brushed his lips over his brother's. "Okay?"

Sam smiled and returned the kiss. "I think…" he slid his arm back around his brother and held him just as close. "… bad guys show up now, we're screwed."

Dean chuckled. He reached behind him and tugged on the blanket, managing to drag it over the top of them both and didn't give a damn how much of a mess they were going to be when they woke up. He cupped his hand around Sam's jaw again, giving him another sweet kiss. "Love you, baby boy."

Sam nodded and squirmed until he could tuck his head under his brother's jaw. "Love you too." He listened to Dean's heart thumping under his ear as it slowly calmed and then smirked. "S'no way Theo didn't hear us."

"Aw, man!" Dean lightly swatted the back of his brother's head but didn't let him go. "At least Bobby's out cold." He snorted a soft laugh and felt Sam settle more heavily against him as he relaxed. "Go to sleep already and stop givin' me nightmares."

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Theo leaned back in the armchair with his feet resting on the coffee table. He cradled his coffee cup against his chest as he stared into the fire he had lit in the fireplace hours before. It was lonely and quiet to be the only one awake. The soft crackling from the flames made his nerves twitch. He was unused to working with people, to being the man responsible for the welfare of others. It had been a long time. Although it mostly felt awkward, he could also feel something stir; something he had long since shut down inside himself – the feeling of being connected to others around him; having someone trust him, and in turn, having people he felt he could trust stand beside him in a fight. That small something, he had to admit, held a warmth and a sense of friendship and camaraderie that he had nearly forgotten. He smirked, remembering the muffled yet unmistakable sounds that had come from Sam and Dean's room after they had gone to bed. They really were quite a magnificent couple.

A sound out of place brought Theo upright in his chair. He set the coffee cup on the table and took his taser in hand as he rose and looked around the well-appointed suite. It had been soft, and after a moment, he realized it had been the sound of gravel crunching beneath someone's feet. He tensed and went quickly to the boys' bedroom. Before he could raise his hand to knock on the door, it opened and Dean was there, clad only in his jeans and looking far more awake than he should.

"Heard something," Dean whispered.

Theo glanced behind him and saw Sam up as well and buttoning his own jeans. "It came from outside; the private entrance."

"I'll watch that door." Sam came out with his taser and gestured across the room. "Go wake up Bobby."

"I'll get this one," Theo said and went to the interior door to the inn. He leaned over the dresser blocking it to place his head against the solid oak door and listened for any sound out of place in the hall beyond. "I can't hear anything."

Sam leaned against the wall beside the outer door and peered out through the small gap in the white curtains over the window. The sky was clouded over, hiding the moon. Small, solar lamps lined the fence around their courtyard. The light they gave off was too meager for him to tell if the shadows under the fence were bushes or people.

"Bobby," Dean said as loud as he dared as he opened the door to the spare room. He grabbed the older hunter's booted foot and gave it a shake. He smiled as Bobby came awake on a gasp and dodged the sleepy, backwards kick toward his chest. "We got trouble. Time to wake up."

"Balls," Bobby groaned and rolled to his back. He sat up and found his hat on the bed beside him. He slipped it over his tousled, gray hair and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. "Creature or…"

"No idea. Something's out there, though. Come on." Dean slapped his shoulder and went back out into the room. The warm, orange glow from the fire showed him his brother at one door and Theo at the other. "Anything?"

Theo shook his head as he straightened. "Nothing."

Sam squinted, trying to make out any details in the dim light outside. "I can't tell. There might be… shit!" He reared back from the door as bodies dropped into sight from above. There was a clatter of gravel and then shattering glass as something heavy slammed into the door. He yelped, raising his arms to cover his face from the shards of glass blown in through the curtains.

"Sam!" Dean yelled and ran to his brother while a large man threw himself into the suite, over the chair blocking the door, and landed on his brother to take them both to the floor.

Sam grunted under the weight that crushed him down and knocked the breath from his lungs. He felt trickles of blood from his face, courtesy of the broken glass, and by the time he was able to blink his vision clear, he had to arch his head back and away from a long sliver of glass coming for his throat.

Dean's horrified shout filled the room. "NO!"

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_To Be Continued…_


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I really thought I was going to wind the case up in this chapter and then spend a bonus chapter on some naughty times with Steven and Joe, like a reward. But damn if this story just didn't want to be done yet. Lol Bonus chapter will have to wait! HA! 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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_Sam squinted, trying to make out any details in the dim light outside. "I can't tell. There might be… shit!" He reared back from the door as bodies dropped into sight from above. There was a clatter of gravel and then shattering glass as something heavy slammed into the door. He yelped, raising his arms to cover his face from the shards of glass blown in through the curtains._

" _Sam!" Dean yelled and ran to his brother while a large man threw himself into the suite, over the chair blocking the door, and landed on his brother to take them both to the floor._

_Sam grunted under the weight that crushed him down and knocked the breath from his lungs. He felt trickles of blood from his face, courtesy of the broken glass, and by the time he was able to blink his vision clear he had to arch his head back and away from a long sliver of glass coming for his throat._

_Dean's horrified shout filled the room. "NO!"_

**Chapter 7**

Dean vaulted the coffee table to reach his brother, and as he watched the flash of broken glass descend in the firelight, he knew he was going to be too late. His world slowed down around him as that wicked point began to press into the soft flesh of Sam's throat. And then the man atop Sam jerked and cried out. He reared back, the impromptu glass dagger's point slicing up along Sam's jaw as he toppled to the side, and Sam rolled clear. "Sammy," Dean fell to his knees beside his brother and jerked him up from the floor and into his arms.

"Ok. I'm ok," Sam gasped, though he could feel a burning pain along his jaw and neck. "Move!" He struggled to his feet with his brother and drew them both away from the door as more people appeared on the other side. They threw themselves against the flimsy barrier, rocking it in its frame until it crashed inward and the chair's feet screeched over the floor and out of their path. Sam held up his taser as he and Dean moved back. "Got him in the ribs. He's gonna feel that later."

"Jesus." Dean slumped a little in relief.

"Come here, son," Bobby ordered and pulled Sam away from his brother long enough to get a look at his bloody throat. He firmly pushed his fingers through the blood and found a shallow slice but nothing more. "He's fine, Dean. Gonna be a bitch to close up but it's alright." He looked over as several townsfolk pushed their way into the room and grimaced. "For now, anyway."

Theo darted to his bag on the floor beside the fireplace and looped the strap over his head. He checked to make sure the spare charges for his taser were there and went back to his post beside the other door. "I think the best course of action would be to catch them as they come in."

"Bottle-neck 'em in the door and zap 'em. Yeah." Dean nodded in agreement.

"I'll watch your backs." Theo assured them.

"Let's go." Sam wished he had bothered to put on a shirt as the cold wind from outside blew in through the door and sent shivers along his skin. He rolled his eyes at himself. After his similar freezing cold, half-naked outdoor chase for the cambion not so long ago, he had vowed never to forget a shirt in the future. So much for that plan. He darted forward and caught the second man through the door with the taser, sending him to the floor in a heap with a shout. Dean was at his side a moment later, and then Bobby at his back. "How many are there?" Sam yelled and dodged to the side, tasing a woman as she lunged past him.

"Fuck." Dean caught a man's arm as he came in the door and stunned him before he could even get inside. He looked out into the dim night and stared as two more people dropped into sight while the gate on their courtyard rattled and burst inward. "They're jumping in from that damn gazebo! And we got more company from the street!"

"Bobby!" Sam yelled and pointed as the small window beside the door broke in a spray of glittering glass.

"Got it!" Bobby caught the first man who tried to crawl through, tasing him in the back of the neck and winced when the man collapsed back outside and left trails blood down the wall from the glass. "Sorry, pal."

The pile of unconscious or moaning people on the floor was growing as more of the townsfolk tried to press inside. Dean grunted when someone's foot connected with his knee and knocked him off balance. "Bastard."

"Dean?" Sam shoved a young woman away from him and shouted as his feet were pulled out from under him and he crashed to the floor again. "This is… getting old." He kicked an old man's hands away from his knee with a silent apology for hurting him even as empty eyes stared at him. He flipped to his stomach at the sudden sound of something crashing behind them. The door to the stairwell burst open in a spray of splinters from the frame. The dresser in front of it was knocked over and caught Theo's legs before he could move aside. "Theo!"

Theo shoved at the top of the dresser, trying to free his legs and looked up in time to see a baseball bat coming for his head. "Well, bollocks."

Sam snarled in outrage as the police chief slammed a bat into Theo's head. His stomach flipped as Theo collapsed to the floor like a rag doll, unconscious or worse. "Get away from him!" Sam bellowed. He regained his feet but was forced to turn and deal with the people still trying to get in the door.

Dean jerked his leg free, zapping two more men and shook his head as Bobby was grabbed by a collection of arms and dragged up and back into the broken window. "No way. Bobby!" He ran to the man and jammed his hand with the taser through the window into the press of bodies. He cursed, feeling a shadow of the jolt he delivered himself through his connection to Bobby. Dean took a fistful of Bobby's shirt over his chest and pulled with a roar of effort. He glanced to his left, and Sam was back on his feet, holding the door.

"Damn!" Bobby gritted his teeth with the pain of broken glass scraping over his back in a furrow, but he was grateful to be back in the room. He turned and immediately zapped the next person who tried to climb in after him. "It's like half the damn town!"

Dean nodded. "Yeah." All at once, the night went silent. The people outside pulled away from the door and the window and ran.

"No." Sam turned and to his horror, found Theo gone from the room. The dresser had been shoved aside and the door stood open. "Theo!" He ran for the hall and skidded to a stop in the hall at the foot of the stairs. There was no one. He turned back as Dean reached him. "They took Theo."

"Son of a bitch!" Dean shouted angrily. He looked back into the room and scrubbed a hand over his face. There were perhaps a dozen people inside the room just beginning to wake up and likely more outside. "Ok. Alright. All these people, they're gonna remember, right?" he asked, looking at his brother.

Sam nodded. "Yeah. Most of it came back right away for me."

"So, at least one of them's gotta know where the creature is now; where they took Theo. Come on." Dean tucked his taser in his back pocket and detoured into their room. He grabbed a shirt for himself, tugging it on, and picked up Sam's as well. He tossed him the t-shirt as he came back out. Bobby knelt beside a woman, rolling her gently to her back.

"Think they're all alive," Bobby said reassuringly. "Might be one dead outside though. That broken window did a number on him."

Dean sighed and looked at the bright, red blood dripping from the window, glistening in the firelight. "I'll check out there."

"Not alone." Sam pulled his t-shirt on and followed his brother with his taser in hand. They climbed over the pile of townsfolk as carefully as they could and stood in the gravel courtyard outside. Four more men were unconscious, and he knelt beside one of them below the window. "This is him." Sam grimaced at the blood mess of the man's once-gray shirt. He put his fingers to his throat, looking for a pulse, and groaned. "He's gone." He tugged the collar of the shirt down and found a deep puncture to the base of his neck with a piece of glass still stuck in the wound.

"Poor bastard." Dean looked around at the aftermath. He peered up at the gazebo above them but it was empty. "What the hell are we gonna do? Not like we can just relocate and hope no one notices."

"Oh, crap." Sam stood in a rush. "Daryl! Come on!"

"Bobby?" Dean leaned in the door to look.

"Go on. I'll be fine!" Bobby kept his taser handy and moved aside to wait for their attackers to wake and hopefully be free of the creature's control.

Dean raced after Sam around the inn to the front and up the broad steps. The doors hung open and he groaned as they ran inside and saw Daryl's feet sticking out from behind the counter. "Aw, hell."

Sam rounded the counter and knelt beside the fallen innkeeper. "Daryl?" He carefully rolled the man to his back and winced. There was a bright red bruise that he would bet money came from the baseball bat across the man's forehead. He leaned down, resting his fingers against Daryl's throat and gasped. "He's alive! Holy shit, he's alive. Daryl?"

Dean leaned over the desk and grabbed the phone there, dialing emergency services. "Dude, needs a hospital." He listened to it ring once and then hung it up suddenly. "Fuck. We can't."

Sam opened his mouth to argue and then closed it. "You're right. Could be the whole town at this point. Alright. Help me move him. We can at least make him more comfortable."

"Yeah." Dean bent and took Daryl's legs while Sam took his head and shoulders. Together they lifted the much smaller man and carried him into the living room across the entry hall. They settled him on a long couch and covered him with a blanket. "That's all we can do until we stop this shit."

Sam nodded miserably and hoped Daryl would survive without help. "Let's go see if anyone's woken up yet." They moved cautiously through the inn, wary that more of the townsfolk would be waiting, but no one appeared. It seemed they had gotten what they came for. "Looks like they were after Theo the whole time."

"Yeah. Gotta be." Dean followed Sam down the spiral stairs and shook his head. "He said he hunts these things almost exclusively. Bet they want a little payback."

"We're not gonna let that happen," Sam said firmly. He reached the bottom and strode through the broken open door to find Bobby helping a young, dazed-looking woman sit beside an equally dazed man on the couch. They both flinched as Sam and Dean appeared.

"Hey, it's alright." Bobby smiled at the woman and patted her shoulder. "They're the good guys. You're alright now." The woman nodded and dropped her head into her hands.

Dean saw several more people sitting up against the walls and looking around in confusion. "Anyone remembering anything useful?" he asked.

Bobby snorted. "They're still at the 'What have I done?' stage. Give 'em a minute or three."

Sam went and sat on the coffee table in front of the woman. He had been the one to tase her. "I'm sorry about before, about hurting you." She looked up at him with big, brown eyes and shook her head.

"I… No. It's… you had to." She shook her head again and scowled.

"My name's Sam. Can you tell me yours?" Sam asked softly.

"Jennifer. I'm… oh, my God. My kids!" Jennifer shot up from the couch suddenly. "It… that thing! It has my kids!"

Sam held her arms as tears began to run down her face. "We're going to find them. I just need you to think. Do you remember where it is?"

"Oh, God." Jennifer sobbed and dropped back to the couch. "They're just little kids, and… and I took them there! It told me to and I did!"

"Jennifer!" Sam knelt in front of her and pulled her hands away from her face. "It's not your fault. You were not in control, alright? But now you are, and all you have to do is tell us where."

Jennifer looked down at the floor through watery eyes and tried to think clearly. "It wanted the other man."

"Theo," Sam whispered and she nodded.

"We were supposed to… to bring him." She covered her mouth with a hand and closed her eyes, remembering what the creature had looked like.

"I think it was pissed at him," The man beside Jennifer said. He scraped his fingers through his silver hair and coughed to clear his throat. "I mean, it wanted you guys, too, but… but it really wanted the other guy bad."

"Where?" Dean asked as he came to stand over his brother. "Do you know where it is now?"

"The fort." Jennifer looked up at Sam with wide eyes. "It's in Fort Screven."

"Yeah." The man shifted and rested an arm across Jennifer's shoulders. "It moved there after… after something happened here. Easy, Jenn. Your kids are gonna be alright." He looked up at Sam and then Dean fiercely. "You gotta save her kids, man. They're all she's got left. Her husband died a few years back. She can't lose them too."

"You know each other?" Sam asked, surprised.

The man snorted a laugh. "Town this size, everybody knows everybody, but, yeah. We're neighbors. I'm Greg. Live next door to her."

"He… he watches the little monsters some… sometimes…" Jennifer broke off and dissolved into tears again. "What did I do?"

"Alright." Dean pulled Sam up with him and waved Bobby over. "We know where it is. Let's arm up and get moving."

Sam turned back and put a hand on Jennifer's shoulder until she looked up at him. "I promise we're going to find your kids for you."

"Tommy and Shauna." Jennifer sniffed and looked deeply into the tall man's eyes and, to her surprise, found she believed him. "Tommy's ten, but Shauna's… she just a baby. She's only four. Please, please save them."

"We will." Sam believed that in his heart. There was no way he was going to lose two children to the homo cthulus; not if he could help it.

"Sam, come on." Dean pulled him away.

"Ya'll gonna be alright if we take off?" Bobby asked Greg and waved an arm at the other people around the room.

Greg nodded. "Yeah, uh… think so." He stood on shaky legs. "Probably best if you're not here anyway. Someone's gonna want someone to blame, ya' know?"

"Yeah." Bobby clapped a hand to the man's shoulder. "Best to move everyone ouuta here and back home soon as you can. Tell them to stay put and not go wandering around. And stay in groups. Nobody goes off by themselves. We got this. You take care of them." He turned away and found his bags beside the coffee table. He glanced back over to Greg. "And if you run into trouble with any more neighbors, electricity works." He smiled at Greg's rather dazed nod of acknowledgement and shouldered his weapons bag. "Alright, boys. Let's get movin'."

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Sam stared up at the dark, hulking outline of the fort as they moved silently toward it. It seemed even more intimidating at night without even the moon to give them light and he couldn't decide if the itching of his skin was nerves or the numerous bandages his brother and Bobby had covered his chest and arms with after the glass. He managed not to flinch when Dean's hand landed on his shoulder and looked over to see a knowing expression in his big brother's eyes. He gave Dean a small smile to tell him he was alright and kept walking. He wasn't alright. He was anything but. The last time they had been to the fort, Sam had very nearly killed Dean. He could feel that dread settling heavy in his heart as they reached the nearest door and stopped. He forced himself to push those emotions back and be calm. He couldn't afford to be falling apart on the inside when they were in so much danger. He took out a flashlight and clicked it on, then eased through the open door.

"I don't like this," Dean whispered as he followed Sam inside with Bobby at his back. "It's gotta know we're coming."

"It will if you keep talkin'," Bobby admonished softly and smirked when Dean sent him a glare. "Where to?"

Sam considered and then nodded to the right, the direction he and Dean had been headed the day before. "That way."

"Why?" Dean asked curiously as he fell in behind his brother.

Sam shrugged. "I don't know. It just… it feels right."

Dean looked over at Bobby and then both shrugged. "Good enough for me," Dean said as he drew his machete while keeping the taser in his left hand.

"Theo's notes said the creatures prefer…" Sam's voice trailed off and he stopped walking.

"Sammy?" Dean moved up beside him and shook his head when Bobby raised his brows.

"Theo's handwriting. His journal," Sam said softly as his brain suddenly made connections and then his eyes went wide in shock. "Holy crap, Dean! His handwriting!"

"Whoa! What the hell are you talking about? What handwriting?" Dean grabbed his arm worriedly. "Sammy, what?"

"Theo's handwrit… Theo." Sam slapped a hand to his head and groaned even as he smiled. "Wow, I'm an idiot! Theo!"

"Dude, any second now I'm gonna zap you again 'til you start makin' some sense!" Dean was confused and concerned, but the look on his brother's face was more 'awe' than 'fear'. "What about Theo?"

Bobby gave a shrug and waved his hands when Dean looked over at him. "Don't look at me. I got no clue what he's on about."

"Theo Linn." Sam began to chuckle and ran a hand over his face before looking between Bobby and Dean. "His handwriting is the same as the old journal you gave me, Bobby; the same neat, obsessively tight script in the journal from 1897."

"Ok." Dean said it in a clear request for more information.

"Merrylin's full name was Thomas. Theodore. Merrylin." Sam enunciated each name and nodded when Dean's eyes went wide in recognition. "Theo Linn."

"Holy shit," Bobby breathed in stunned disbelief.

"Somehow, it's him. Theo Linn is Thomas Theodore Merrylin. Bet if I track down a picture of the guy, they match." He frowned and groaned. "Oh, man. That explains why the creature's so hot to capture him, too, like a lifelong vendetta."

"Wait. Wait." Dean ran a hand through his hair, letting the new information run through his mind. "The guy'd be, like, over a hundred."

"Two hundred," Bobby said and shook his head. "And some change. Wow."

Sam nodded. "There were rumors. I found them when I researched him, Merrylin, I mean. There were stories that he stopped aging in his forties, that a man showed up in the nineteen-fifties to protect Merrylin's collection of the weird and they assumed it was his grandson but that he was never seen again after that. It was him. It's really him. He's…" Sam swallowed and met his brother's eyes. "He's immortal."

"What the hell is he, then?" Dean tried to reconcile the man he had innately trusted with the knowledge that he might be some variety of monster and, worse, the fear that they would have to hunt him. "'Cause he ain't human."

Sam shook his head. "I don't know." He put a hand on Dean's neck soothingly. "But we owe him to ask him before we start accusing him of being a monster," he said, correctly interpreting the expression on his brother's face. "Theo saved our lives. We owe him the benefit of the doubt."

Dean sighed. "Yeah, we do." He cleared his throat and nodded. "First we gotta find him in one piece, though."

"How the hell did no one know this guy was the real Merrylin?" Bobby wondered and shook his head. "Gotta give him credit for hiding that for so long."

"We'll ask him." Sam turned and started walking again. "Soon as we find him."

Dean stayed close to his brother. His mind was spinning with questions about Theo and his motivations but he shook them off. Theo had been nothing but trustworthy since the moment he'd come in to their lives, and apparently, he'd been quite the hunter and researcher long, long before that.

"Stop thinkin' so hard," Bobby muttered as he moved up alongside Dean. He smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "Pretty sure Theo's good people or you boys wouldn't'a let him into your space like that back at the inn."

Dean ducked his head and smiled at Bobby's insight and how right he was. "Yeah. He…" He trailed off as something thumped into his shoulder from above. He looked up, bringing his flashlight up as well, and his jaw dropped open. The vaulted ceiling above them was filled with rocks and bricks and chunks of masonry held up by a net, and, as he watched, it broke. "Run!" He reached ahead and shoved his brother in the back, then grabbed Bobby and spun them both back the way they had come. The noise as the rubble fell was deafening. Something heavy slammed into Dean's back and knocked all the air out of him as he crashed into the floor with Bobby beside him. He raised his head to try and look for his brother and felt another hard knock to the back of his head that sent him reeling.

Dean came back to his senses with a low groan. He coughed, breathing in dust that set his eyes watering. He blinked his eyes open, and it took him a moment to realize he was looking at the beam from his flashlight a few feet away, miraculously still working. "Sa…" Dean coughed again, trying to clear his throat and pulled his right arm in to lever his face off the stone floor. "Sammy? Bobby?" He turned his head and found Bobby beside him; still. "No. No. No." He scrambled to the older hunter's side, kicking rocks and stones loose from his legs as he pulled Bobby over to his back. He nearly wept in relief when Bobby coughed and Dean hung his head. "Jesus. Ok." He patted Bobby's chest and stretched a hand out to get his flashlight. "Sam?"

"Dean." Bobby's voice was a rough whisper of sound as he opened his eyes. "The hell…"

"Bastards rigged the ceiling. Jesus, Bobby. You alright?" Dean leaned over him and shone the light along his body but he couldn't see any overt signs of injury.

Bobby waved a hand. "M'fine. Find… find Sam."

"Sam!" Dean got to his knees and groaned as his legs threatened to give out under him. There would be some impressive bruising from the rubble, he was sure. "Shit." He shined his light around them and found his taser. He stooped to pick it up and grimaced. "Well, my taser's toast," he said as it fell apart in his hands. He tossed it aside and climbed carefully over the stones and bricks to where he'd last seen Sam by the door. "Sammy?" He stopped just before the door and found a small area of the rubble that had been cleared as though shoved aside in a hurry. As he aimed his light along the floor, he saw footprints in the dust and none of them were big enough to be Sam's, and worse - drag marks. Someone had pulled his brother out of the rubble and taken him. "Oh, God, Bobby. They've got him. They took Sam."

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"… am."

Sam twitched, hearing a voice.

"Sam, wake up. Please. Sam!"

The shout of his name startled Sam out of the dark place he had been floating. He gasped and opened his eyes. The last thing he remembered was his brother shoving him toward the door before the sky had fallen on them. He gave a low groan as he tried to move. It sent pain rocketing through his body. His back felt like someone had wedged something under his ribs, but he forced his head up. "Dean?"

"No, Sam. It's me. Theo." Theo watched the young man wake and let out a breath of relief. "Are you alright?"

"Theo?" Sam blinked, trying to clear his fuzzy vision and mind. "You're…" He managed finally to see Theo standing across the room and smirked, letting his head fall back to the cold, stone floor. "Lookin' pretty good for a… for a… double cente... centenarian. Ow, my head."

"What?" Theo stared in shock and then gave a soft laugh. "Figured me out, did you?" He shook his head, the humor dying quickly. "Sam, you need to get up now. You have to get out of here before they come back. Before the creature comes back. Sam! Listen to me!" He felt bad for pushing the man when he was obviously hurt, but he knew there wouldn't be much time.

Sam groaned and slowly rolled to his side, forcing his aching head and body to move. "Could… use a hand here." He heard the clink of metal then and opened his eyes again to look at Theo.

"Wish I could, Sam." Theo shook his head and pulled his arms, rattling the iron manacles that bound him to the wall. "Afraid I'm a bit tied up at the moment."

"Shit." Sam took a deep breath and got to his knees. He swayed and had to brace a hand on the wall or go back down.

"I heard a terrible clamor a bit ago. What was it?" Theo watched Sam struggling to regain his feet and could easily see the blood on the side of Sam's face in the flickering torchlight.

"Rockfall." Sam got to his feet and had to take a moment to steady himself. "Dean and Bobby… gotta find 'em."

"Then go, Sam." Theo smiled when Sam looked at him again. "Get out of here."

Sam shook his head. "No. Not without you." He staggered across the room to Theo and caught himself with a hand on the man's chest. "Sorry. Let me… just let me look."

"Sam, no," Theo protested as Sam leaned to the side to look at the manacle around his left wrist. "There isn't time!"

Sam turned back to Theo and met his eyes. "We don't leave a man behind, Theo." He gave him a small smile and looked around the room. "I just need to find something to pick the locks. Hang on." He ignored Theo's continued order to leave and checked out the room. There was a blood-stained table against one wall, a pile of clothing from who knew how many victims, and two doors. Sam went to one and pressed his ear against it but could hear nothing. He went to the other and did the same. "I don't like that it's so quiet out there."

"It killed a man earlier," Theo told him softly while Sam went to the pile of clothes and knelt, sifting through them for something useful. He shook his head. "All my years hunting these things… I never knew. I've always thought the damage to the bodies of the dead was caused solely by the mind-controlled. But the homo cthulus… Sam, it… it sucked a man's brain out through his nose and mouth with those tentacles!"

Sam sat back and looked up at him, then he nodded. "We saw a couple autopsy reports that said some of the brain matter had been removed. That makes sense."

"I missed it," Theo said miserably. "I've killed a dozen of these things, but I've never seen one kill a human being itself. Good lord, Sam. It was… it was horrific." He glared at the younger man as Sam rose again. "And you need to leave me before it comes back and does the same to you! Please, Sam!"

"Not gonna happen." Sam held up a hairpin he'd found in the pile with a smile and went to one of Theo's shackled wrists. "Dean and Bobby are out there and they'll be here soon."

"You can't know that," Theo pointed out sadly.

"Yes, I can." Sam scowled at the shackle as he worked at picking the lock while dread coiled sickly in his stomach. "They're alive and they're coming, because if I think of anything else… I'll just… they're alive. We just have to hold on."

Theo closed his eyes, letting his head fall forward. "You're a good man, Sam."

Sam snorted. "No, I'm stubborn. Now shut up and let me work." The manacles were old and covered in rust. Sam bit his bottom lip in frustration as he tried to get the old tumblers inside the thing to move. "Dammit."

Theo's head came up suddenly. "Sam," he whispered. "I think I heard something."

Sam stepped back, looking at the interior door with Theo and then he heard it too - the scrape of boots on hard stone. "It might be Dean."

"And it might bloody not be!" Theo hissed angrily at him. "You've no weapons. You need to exercise the better part of valor, you heroic idiot." He gave Sam a sheepish smile. "Run away to fight another day, Sam."

Sam snarled softly under his breath, but he moved toward the other door. "I'm going to find a weapon and then I'm coming back for you." He went to the other door at the back of the room, pressed his ear to it again and listened. As before, there was nothing to hear. "Alright. Two minutes. I'll be back." He met Theo's gaze in a firm promise and then pulled the door open. Sam yelped in surprise and staggered backward into the room. The homo cthulus stood on the other side of the door as though it had been waiting.

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_To Be Continued…_


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: There will be one more chapter after this, basically a naughty bonus chapter. Like a reward for dealing with my cliffie-loving ass. Heh. Janice is off to a con tomorrow so I wanted to get this one out for you guys before she left, since she won't be available to beta again until at least Monday. Enjoy, kids! 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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_Theo closed his eyes, letting his head fall forward. "You're a good man, Sam."_

_Sam snorted. "No, I'm stubborn. Now shut up and let me work." The manacles were old and covered in rust. Sam bit his bottom lip in frustration as he tried to get the old tumblers inside the thing to move. "Dammit."_

_Theo's head came up suddenly. "Sam," he whispered. "I think I heard something."_

_Sam stepped back, looking at the interior door with Theo and then he heard it too; the scrape of boots on hard stone. "It might be Dean."_

" _And it might bloody not be!" Theo hissed angrily at him. "You've no weapons. You need to exercise the better part of valor, you heroic idiot." He gave Sam a sheepish smile. "Run away to fight another day, Sam."_

_Sam snarled softly under his breath but he moved toward the other door. "I'm going to find a weapon and then I'm coming back for you." He went to the other door at the back of the room, pressed his ear to it again and listened. As before, there was nothing to hear. "Alright. Two minutes. I'll be back." He met Theo's gaze in a firm promise and then pulled the door open. Sam yelped in surprise and staggered backward into the room. The homo cthulus stood on the other side of the door as though it had been waiting._

**Chapter 8**

It was worse than Sam remembered from his brief encounter with the thing. Its body was covered in glistening, green-gray skin, more like a shark than human skin. It had no defining features on its body, like an unfinished sketch of a person. Its head, though, was a nightmare image with a face full of tentacles that writhed and waved like they had minds of their own and, above them, two eyes that swirled with black. Sam looked into them, and for a moment, had the sensation that he was falling, that he would fall forever and never stop. He wrenched his gaze away from the creature and fetched up hard against Theo's chest behind him. "Holy shit. Shit!"

"Don't let it touch you." Theo warned. He jerked at his bonds as the creature took a step into the room. "Leave him alone!"

Sam shivered as the creature drew closer. Every step it took squelched wetly, and he looked down to see water pooling around its feet, like it brought the ocean with it. He could smell seawater in the air more strongly and, worse, the smell of dead, rotting things. It made his nose burn and his eyes water. He remembered that smell from the inn when it had touched him. At that moment, the other door burst open and a group of townsfolk pushed into the room to his left. They stopped and stood, all their eyes trained vacantly on the homo cthulus. It gave a slow nod of its head, and the townsfolk turned toward Sam and Theo.

"Why doesn't it just come over and touch me?" Sam asked. He wanted to back away as the people neared, but that would have meant leaving Theo unprotected and he couldn't do it.

"Fear." Theo struggled against his chains with a snarl. "It wants you to feel fear; needs it, like food."

"Great." Sam steadied his nerves and took a breath, consciously willing the fear he couldn't fight to the back of his mind. A lifetime of practice allowed him to force it down to a point where, hopefully, the cthulus would be denied his treat. He waited, ready but calm, for the first man to reach for him, caught his arm, and easily flipped the man over his shoulder and across the room. He kicked a knee out from a woman as she lunged at him. "Sorry," he muttered, knowing she wasn't attacking of her own free will. He threw punches and elbows, trying to beat them back, but, in the end, they outnumbered him and bore him to the floor under a press of bodies.

"No! Let him go!" Theo shouted. He stared at the homo cthulus where it stood, still and statue-like. "You wanted me! You've got me! Let him go!" He could only watch helplessly as fists rained down on Sam until at last the group of townsfolk shifted. They stood and pulled Sam up with them. He wasn't moving, but Theo could hear him breathing heavily. "Sam." He heard a gurgling sound from the creature, and the people moved, taking Sam to the table. They laid him out atop it on his back, and the men moved to hold down his arms and legs. "Sam!"

Sam coughed and fought to stay conscious. He focused on Theo's voice calling to him. "Theo."

"I'm here, Sam." Theo shook with anger and helplessness in his chains. He saw Sam open his eyes and roll his dark head to look at him. Blood splattered his face and throat. He had a split above his right eye, and his nose and lip were still seeping blood to crawl over his jaw. "I'm sorry, Sam."

"Not…" Sam coughed and spat a gob of blood over the side of the table. "Not your fault." He jerked his arms and legs, but the men holding him down only pressed harder until he winced at the pain they were causing. He watched the creature come closer and glared up at it. "You can brainwash me again, but it won't matter. My brother knows what you are. He'll stop you." He gave the homo cthulus a bloody smile. "And I'm not afraid of you anymore, squid-for- brains."

Theo marveled at Sam, spitting in the face of the creature. He frowned when it drew away from Sam a step, and then swallowed hard when it opened its arms and one of the women went to it and wrapped her arms around its neck like a lover. "Oh, God. Sam, don't watch this. You don't want to see this."

"No!" Sam bellowed and fought harder against the men holding him. The homo cthulus lowered its grisly head. The tentacles writhed toward the woman's face. As they touched her skin, she jerked in the creature's grasp. She began to scream as they forced their way into her mouth and nose and it was quickly cut off in a gurgling cry. "Stop it!" Sam shouted but to no avail. If anything, the homo cthulus shifted slightly so that Sam had a better look, could see the appendages forced into her body, the way they clenched and released, and could hear the sickening slurping sounds as it fed. Sam turned his head away when the creature tore its tentacles from the woman in a spray of blood and thicker things, flinching as something warm and wet spattered against his cheek. He heard her body fall to the floor with a heavy thump and finally looked back to the creature.

"Don't fear it, Sam." Theo struggled uselessly against his bonds. "That's what it wants; your fear."

Sam strained against the hands holding him and then frowned as the homo cthulus turned away. It moved to stand in front of Theo instead. "Hey. Hey!" Sam shouted, trying to get its attention. He watched while the creature ducked its head slowly along Theo's left arm and stopped, just above the homemade taser bracelet Theo had welded on to himself. A sick feeling began to sink into his stomach. That feeling was rewarded a moment later when the creature straightened and moved back only to make room for another of the townsfolk; a tall man in a torn flannel and carrying a bone saw that glinted in his hand. "NO! You leave him alone!"

"Oh, ballocks," Theo breathed, horrified, while the new man shoved his sleeve back to bare his forearm. He looked away as the saw was laid against his arm and the teeth bit gently into his skin. He took a deep breath, attempting to steel himself for the pain, but could not hold back the first agonized shout when the man began to saw at his arm.

"Theo!" Sam bellowed the name and then threw his head back. "DEAN!" He was breathing heavily and used the flood of adrenaline to his advantage. He didn't try to free his arms and legs again. Instead, he wrenched his body to the side, throwing all his weight against the strength of his captors with a roar of effort. His desperation won out, and Sam toppled off the table to the floor. He grunted in pain but ignored his abused body and scrambled to his feet as the four men that had been holding him down closed on him.

Sam grabbed the arm of the man closest and spun, flinging him away and into the man sawing at Theo's forearm. They both tumbled to the floor, and Sam whirled to try and protect himself from the remaining three as they tackled him into the table and he collapsed under the weight of their bodies with Theo's frightened shout of his name ringing in his ears.

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Dean swayed as the floor seemed to wave beneath his feet. He caught a hand against the wall on his left and felt Bobby slide up under his arm on the right. "M'alright," he muttered, but he let his head hang down for just a moment. "Why'd they leave us, Bobby? Why only Sam?"

Bobby sighed, stepping back once he felt Dean's body steady. "'Cause it's screwin' with us. You read the research." Bobby checked the hall behind them warily. "It likes scarin' its victims; likes 'em crazy." He snorted softly with amusement and affection. "You think of a better way to make you and Sam crazy than splittin' you up?" He looked at Dean's face, one side of which was covered in drying blood, and shook his head. "Hell, maybe they thought we were already dead. Sure as hell look it."

Dean scowled as they moved deeper into the fort. His mind couldn't help but run through a list of the things that might be happening to his brother, or worse, already happened and this time he would be too late. He had thought by shoving Sam away from the rock fall he'd been protecting him, but he had only pushed him straight into the hands of the creature.

"Knock it off." Bobby slapped the back of Dean's shoulder. "We're gonna find him and he's gonna be alright."

"Sorry." Dean realized he'd been breathing heavily and worked to slow it down and calm himself. Freaking out wasn't going to help Sam. He stopped at an intersection and held an arm out to Bobby as he leaned forward. "You hear that?" he whispered.

Bobby turned his head to listen and then nodded. "Yeah. Voices. People. Not far ahead." He kept his voice equally soft.

Dean looked down at his machete, the only weapon he still had apart from his gun and frowned. "Ok, I'm gonna knock people down; you zap 'em," he said with a nod to Bobby's taser. "I don't wanna have to kill any of these poor bastards. Let's go. It's this way, I think." Dean turned left at the intersection and the sounds of people speaking in low voices and the shuffling of shoes on concrete grew louder. He looked back at Bobby as they reached another corner. Dean raised his brows and used his fingers to mime sneaking in.

Bobby rolled his eyes with a smirk and got ready to move.

Dean gave a smirk of his own and gave a silent 'three count' with his fingers. On one, they both rushed into the room, hoping the element of surprise would give them the advantage. Dean could see seven people grouped at the far end of the long room. Fires burned in braziers along the walls, and they were all standing in front of a door as though waiting. He lunged ahead of Bobby and grabbed the first, a young man no more than twenty, and Dean jerked the kid past him, throwing him toward Bobby and his taser. He heard the young man's startled and pained shout as Bobby zapped him and grinned. "Who's next?"

Bobby ducked down when two men went wide around Dean to rush him. He lowered his shoulder and stepped ahead to meet the man on the right, digging his shoulder into his stomach, and heaved him off to the side. He went to one knee with the effort and reached out to zap the second man in the thigh before he could get a hold of him. "Too old… for this," Bobby panted. He swiveled on his knee and tased the first man in the ankle before regaining his feet to see Dean being born to the floor by two men and a woman. "Shit! Hang on, son!"

Dean grunted as he was held down. He craned his head and saw Bobby coming and, at the same moment, heard the unmistakable sound of his brother's voice raised in a shout of his name. "Sam!" Dean slammed a knee up into the woman's stomach and sent her rolling away. He used his greater mass to roll one of the men beneath him while Bobby tased the other and the woman before they could move again. Dean leaned up astride the man. "Sorry about this, dude," he said and slammed his fist into the man's head twice until he fell limp. He scrambled back to his feet and grabbed his machete from where it had fallen.

"Come on!" Bobby strode to the door with Dean on his heels.

Theo's voice sounded through the door, shouting his brother's name fearfully, and Dean snarled with that old, protective/possessive rage flowing through him. He reared back and kicked in the old wooden door with an explosion of sound. "Sam!" Dean shouted as he burst into the room. He took in the bodies in motion in the room; Theo chained to the wall and bleeding, a dog pile of townsfolk on the floor across from him, and the legs sticking out from the bottom that he knew were his brother's, and the creature watching it all from several feet back.

Dean resisted the urge to go to his brother and forced himself to face the homo cthulus instead. Killing it would be the fastest way to save his brother. "You are one ugly son of a bitch," Dean said and advanced on the creature with his machete held ready. "Bobby." Dean pointed wide with his machete toward the pile over his brother and took a step toward the creature. "Ok, ugly. Let's dance."

"Bobby, hurry," Theo gasped as the elder hunter passed him. He didn't think Sam was moving beneath his attackers any longer. His own pain was nothing compared to his concern for the young man who had literally thrown himself in harm's way to save him.

Bobby didn't bother with words. He leaned in and jabbed his taser into the back of the nearest man. The crackle of the charge was lost in the man's howl of pain and surprise, and Bobby quickly shifted to tase the next and the next. He shoved the last man atop Sam over to his side with his boot and knelt down beside the youngest Winchester. "Sam?" He was bloodied and bruised and his eyes were closed tight. "Sam, come on, son." He gave a tight smile when Sam moaned softly and cracked his eyes open. "That's it. Dean, he's alright!" Bobby called and grabbed the shaking hand Sam raised up toward him, adding under his breath, "Relatively speaking."

Dean let out a small breath with the knowledge his brother was alright. He ducked away from a swing of the creature's hand, avoiding being touched by the glistening, gray appendage, and stabbed out with his machete. "Dammit," he snarled as the homo cthulus lithely bent away from the strike. "Son of a bitch."

Sam held tightly to Bobby's arm and used it to lever his back up from the floor and sit. He looked up, eyes widening as his brother attacked the creature. "Bobby." Sam knew his brother's movements; they had spent a lifetime sparring together, and he knew Dean's moves the way his brother knew his. Sam gasped with the sudden realization that the creature now knew Dean's moves as well. It had been inside his own mind and privy to his thoughts. He knew he was right as Dean pivoted on one heel and spun with the machete in a move that should have taken the creature's head, but missed as it folded beneath the blade and lunged forward under his brother's defenses. "Dean! No!" Sam could only watch as the homo cthulus slapped a hand up and into the unprotected skin at his brother's throat. Dean staggered back a step and then steadied. He turned with the creature behind him and looked at Theo. "Dean, stop! Bobby, get him. Zap him!"

"Shit." Bobby helped Sam to his knees and groaned as Dean advanced on Theo and raised the machete. "Aw, this is gonna suck." He threw himself forward as the machete began to fall toward Theo's bloody arm. He slammed into Dean, wrapping one arm around his chest while he pressed the taser into the young man's stomach. Dean jerked and cried out as they went to the floor.

Sam scrambled over the stone floor and caught the machete that fell from his brother's hand before it could clatter away. He rose to his feet while the creature watched Bobby and his brother and brought the machete around with both hands and a cry of effort. The blade sliced into the back of the homo cthulus' neck. Acrid, green water like blood gushed from the open wound as Sam completed his swing. He stumbled to his knees and reared back with the wet splat of the creature's severed head in front of him. Its tentacles writhed, brushing Sam's knee while the eyes seemed to stare at him. "Holy shit," Sam gasped. He used the machete to shove the head further away and looked over to find the creature's body sprawled over backward and still.

Bobby groaned and got to his hands and knees over Dean. He patted a hand to the side of Dean's face. "You in there, son?"

"No," Dean muttered and kept his eyes tightly closed for a moment while the after-effects of the stun passed through him.

Bobby grinned and fondly slapped the side of Dean's face hard enough to rock his head to the side. "Stop goofin' around and get up already."

"Sadist." Dean brought his hands up, rubbing them over his face, and then lurched up fast enough to topple Bobby back onto his ass. "Sam!"

"Here," Sam said wearily. He met Dean's green eyes with a smile and then allowed his much-abused body to collapse over onto his side with a low groan. "M'just gonna… wait here." He waved one arm vaguely in Theo's direction. "Help him."

"I got him." Bobby patted a hand on Sam's ankle before he got back to his feet and went to the other hunter. He grimaced when he saw the gory, open wound in Theo's arm. "Holy crap."

Theo let out a breath and slumped in the chains a little. "The creature, it tried to have them saw my arm off."

Bobby hissed between his teeth in sympathy while he pulled a bandana from his back pocket and started wrapping it around the jagged flesh as gently as he could. "You move your fingers at all?"

Theo nodded. "Didn't reach the bone." He looked down to where Dean was even then settling beside Sam and tenderly rolling the younger man up into his lap. "He saved me or they'd have had my arm off for sure. Sam, he…" He shook his head in admiration. "He threw himself into the man sawing at my arm with no care for himself. He could have been killed."

Bobby smiled and turned his attention to picking the lock on the manacle. "Yeah, he does that."

"Sammy, hey." Dean carded his fingers through his brother's hair, moving it out of his eyes and smiled when Sam's fluttered open to look up at him. "You alright?" He scowled, taking a visual inventory of the bruises and blood he could see and wondered how much was still hidden beneath Sam's clothes.

Sam nodded stiffly even as he tried to curl more into Dean's chest. He fisted a hand over the amulet hanging on Dean's chest, catching the shirt with it and closed his eyes. "M'ok now."

Dean let out a breath and rested his head down in Sam's hair. He pulled him in close, wrapping his arms around him and sighed out a long breath of relief. "Yeah, buddy. Me too." He smoothed a hand up his brother's back to his neck and pressed his hand over the collar there. "Thought I fuckin' lost you."

Sam nodded at the quiet admission and pressed his face more tightly into his brother's chest until he could feel his heart beating. He couldn't quite believe the creature was dead and they were safe. "Don't… don't let go."

"Never." Dean squeezed Sam more tightly. He looked up and saw Bobby watching with concern in his eyes. "We're ok. How's he?"

Theo groaned as the shackle dropped from his wrist and pulled his wounded arm in to his chest. "I'll be alright." He nodded in thanks to Bobby as the man moved to work on the other shackle and then looked down to Dean. "Don't believe him, Dean. They gave him a vicious beating. I'd be surprised if something isn't cracked at the least."

"Shit." Dean sighed as he felt Sam become heavier against him. "Sammy, how bad you hurt?" He looked down and frowned when his brother didn't answer, and a moment later he felt Sam's hand loosen from its hold around his shirt and amulet. "Sam? Hey, come on." He tipped him back carefully away from his chest so he could see his face. "Shit! Think he just passed out."

"Put him down, Dean." Bobby quickly freed Theo's other arm and went to his boys. "Come on, get him layin' flat. Gotta be his ribs."

"Yeah. Easy. Be careful." Dean slowly got Sam on his back with Bobby's help. He tugged up his brother's shirt and gritted his teeth together angrily as the deep bruises across Sam's torso were revealed. "Holy shit." He began carefully feeling along one side of Sam's rib cage while Bobby did the same on the other. "Think he got lucky and none of these are broken, bruised to hell though."

Bobby nodded and then sighed. "Got a little give right here," he said and left his fingers over Sam's bruised skin. "Definitely cracked, probably broken." He moved his hand to look at the bruise and had the sudden urge to beat hell out of the men who had beaten Sam. "That's a boot print."

"They didn't know," Theo gently reminded the men. He could easily see the anger darkening their features as they took in the state of Sam. As if his words were a cue, the various stunned men around the room began to moan and stir. He cradled the agony that was his left arm to his chest and waved a hand. "Take care of him. I'll deal with these."

"He's just unconscious." Dean nodded, reassuring himself as he felt the comforting thump of Sam's heart beating beneath his hand on his chest. "He wakes up, we'll get him outta here and patch him up."

"He's gonna be fine, Dean." Bobby smiled and reached out to grasp his shoulder.

"Damn right." Dean jerked his head up as one of the men shouted in alarm. He watched the man in a red flannel scramble away from the head of the homo cthulus on his ass and gave a grim smile when his panicked eyes swung to Dean. "Hey. How's it goin'?"

"What?" The man gasped, trying to catch his breath as he looked around the room. He felt his eyes widening and his mouth fall open in shock when his gaze fell on the young man unconscious on the floor. "Oh, my God. I… I remember I…" He slapped a hand to his mouth. "What did I do? Oh, Jesus. Is he ok? Did… did we kill him?"

"He's alive," Theo reassured the man. "Can you stand? The others are coming 'round and I could use a hand. What's your name?"

"Brad. I'm… my name's Brad Cooper." He got stiffly to his feet and dragged his hands over his buzzed, brown hair. "I'm a truck driver. I was making a delivery to…" He closed his eyes and swayed. "Christ, what fuckin' day is it?"

Theo reached over and steadied Brad with his good arm. "It's alright. You're free now. But we could use some help getting Sam out of here, if you think you're up to it."

Brad sucked in a shaky breath and lowered his hand to look at the man on the floor again. He couldn't shake the visceral memory of his fists beating him; his feet kicking. He shuddered and nodded. "Yeah. Yeah." He looked at the men who had helped in the beating. "We'll get him out of here. It's the least we can do."

Dean leaned down as he felt a shiver work through his brother's body. He leaned over his head and curved a hand around Sam's jaw. "Sammy? You comin' back to us?"

Sam blinked slowly and opened his eyes to find Dean and Bobby watching him worriedly. "I go to sleep?"

Dean chuckled and pressed his other hand into his brother's shoulder before he could try and sit up. "Yeah. Stay there. You've got some busted ribs, buddy."

Sam nodded and settled back to the floor with a grimace of pain. "I noticed." His eyes flew open suddenly and he lurched up in spite of Dean's restraining hand. "The kids! We need to... fuck." Sam coughed once and curled over, slumping into Dean's waiting arms. "Jennifer's kids, uh… Tommy and… and Shauna. They have to be here."

"They are! Holy shit!" Brad spun around from helping another man up from the floor. "The kids!" He sprinted from the room with Theo on his heels.

"They have to be alright," Sam whispered. He shook his head when Dean and Bobby both tried to lay him back down. "Promised her."

"Lay down, dammit." Dean tried to push Sam back again and sighed when his brother stubbornly stayed leaning against him. "You're gonna puncture a damn lung or something."

Sam shook his head. "Won't." A commotion in one of the doors brought his head back up and a smile spread across Sam's face when Theo and the other man returned, each carrying a child. Theo had a little girl with dark hair curled against his chest with his good arm, her thumb firmly in her mouth, and Brad held a little boy in his arms who looked around in confusion. "Oh, thank God."

"They're fine, Sam," Theo said with a smile. He looked down at the little girl sniffling against his chest and felt a surge of joy that they had managed to save even the children.

"Thank God," Sam breathed. With that, the last of his energy deserted him and he slumped into Dean's hold, closing his eyes.

"Sammy?" Dean's heart thudded in his chest fearfully as his little brother went heavy against him once again. He eased Sam back down to the floor and blew out a breath with his fingers once more resting against Sam's throat and the steady, if fast, pulse there. "Unconscious again."

"Let's hope he stays that way for a while." Bobby smiled grimly. "Ain't gonna be a picnic for him gettin' him outta here."

Dean was loathe to let anyone but himself touch his helpless brother, but Bobby bullied him into cooperation and, in the end, Sam was carried from the fort and out to the Impala on a hasty litter borne by Dean, Bobby, and several of the rescued townsfolk. He made no argument when Bobby directed him to the clinic a few miles away; his little brother needed more help just then than the usual meatball first aid they practiced in hotel rooms. Hours later, though it seemed like days to him, Dean paced uselessly in the waiting room of the little clinic. He scratched irritably at the bandage on his forehead placed there by a particularly stern nurse who had been immune to his both his charms and his usual 'I'm fine' bullshit. He looked up as she reappeared, blonde hair tucked tightly beneath a green surgical cap, and draping a stethoscope over the collar of her butter yellow scrubs.

"Can I see him now?" Dean demanded. He ignored the snort from Bobby behind him.

The nurse smirked and studied him. "I thought I told you to shower and eat something. Doesn't look like you did that."

Dean rolled his eyes and instantly regretted it as a fresh wave of pain rolled through his skull. "I ate."

"Coffee sludge from the vending machine down the hall does not count." She sighed and met the eyes of the older man as he rose behind Dean. "Is he always like this?"

"Pretty much if he's breathin', yeah." Bobby grinned at the dark look Dean sent him. "Judy, think it'd be easier on all of us if you just let the kid see his brother."

Judy chuckled and shrugged. "Fine, come along then." She turned without waiting to see Dean's reaction and started back down the hall. "Sam is fine. Two cracked ribs, three very badly sprained. Luckily, there was no internal bleeding from the beating he sustained. The concussion is severe enough that we'd like to keep him overnight to monitor him, though." She stopped outside a door and turned to look at Dean again. "He needs to take it easy for the next four to six weeks while his ribs heal. Right now, it's hairline fractures." She stared Dean down seriously. "But if he tries to do too much, those fractures could become breaks and puncture a lung or worse."

Dean raised his hands in submission. "I get it. We've had cracked ribs before. He'll take it easy." He smirked. "I'll make him."

Judy nodded, believing him completely, and opened the door. "Don't wear him out. Visiting hours end… well, they ended an hour ago." She smirked. "I'm going to conveniently forget I left you back here for the night. Don't make me regret it."

"Whoa." Dean watched her walk away and met Bobby's very amused gaze. "I think she likes me."

"Idjit. Get in there." Bobby chuckled and followed Dean into the room.

Dean went quickly to his brother's bedside. Sam was laid out with his feet just hanging off the end of the too-short bed. They'd removed his clothes, leaving him in a green hospital gown with a blanket tugged up to his waist. Dean took his hand, careful of the IV taped to the back, and sat gently beside Sam's hip. "Hey, little brother." He looked like hell in the bright white lights. Bruises peeked out from the gown over his chest and Dean could see the thickness of bandages around his chest. More bruises decorated his face, including a blackened eye and a fat lip. He did his best to ignore the anger all that damage raised in him and smiled as Sam's eyes slowly opened.

"Dean." Sam smiled and then winced. It pulled his split lip, but he squeezed Dean's hand with his own instead. "Y'ok?" he asked, looking at the stark white bandage on his brother's forehead.

"Dude, I'm fine." Dean shook his head and rested his other hand lightly on Sam's chest. "You're gonna be walking wounded for a few weeks, though."

"Hey, kiddo," Bobby greeted with a smile. He stepped up to the bed and rested his hand briefly on top of Sam's head. "How you feelin'?" Sam gave him a one-armed shrug. "Yeah, 'bout like canned crap, huh? I wanted to make sure you were alright before I head back out." He met Dean's surprised look and gave a shrug of his own. "I left George alone in worse shape than you two. I gotta get back and make sure the idiot's still breathin'."

"You didn't have to come," Sam told him and grimaced when Bobby's hand left his head long enough to thump back in an almost-slap.

"I'm gonna forget you said that." Bobby moved his hand to clasp Sam's shoulder and reached across the bed to do the same to Dean. "You boys call me and let me know when you're headin' back home."

"Bobby." Dean looked at the man in gratitude. "Thanks."

"You can thank me by cleanin' my damn garage when you get back." Bobby grinned and slapped Dean's shoulder hard enough to knock him forward as he left. "Leavin' your tools all over, it's like you never grew up or somethin'."

Sam chuckled softly in the bed. He pulled Dean's hand up until he was holding it over his heart and watched the smile on his brother's face. "How long was I out?"

Dean leaned in and smoothed Sam's dark hair back from his forehead. "Few hours. Bobby went back and took care of big ugly. Roasted and toasted." He smiled at the question in Sam's eyes, easily reading it there. "We called and got the kids' mom here. You'd'a loved it, ya big sap. Lots of tears and hugs and shit. The townsfolk are, uh…" He shook his head, a little bemused. "They're makin' sure we don't have to pay for anything until we leave. Coverin' the hospital bills and the inn and everything."

Sam's eyes widened in surprise and then he began to chuckle. "Makes you uncomfortable, huh?"

"People being grateful instead of pointing and goin' all pod people on us?" Dean snorted. "Hell yeah. Feels weird." He leaned down until he could rest his forehead against his brother's and just took a moment to be comforted by Sam's presence, alive if not completely in one piece. "I'll bust you outta here tomorrow and we'll head to Bobby's for a while."

Sam closed his eyes and tipped his head, brushing his lips against his brother's. "Sounds like a plan." He gave a low moan as Dean's lips pressed more firmly against his, Dean's tongue a warm weight pressing into his mouth, and he didn't care when he felt his barely healed lip split again.

Dean leaned back from the kiss and sighed, seeing a drop of blood on Sam's reopened lip. He brushed it away with his knuckles. "Next few weeks are gonna suck for my libido."

Sam laughed and fisted a hand in his brother's shirt. "We'll figure something out. Where's Theo? His arm…"

"Gonna be fine." Dean smiled and absently played with the collar still around his brother's neck, relieved they hadn't taken it off of him. "Got a whole bunch of stitches, but you stopped the guy before he hit bone, so Theo's gonna be sore for a while, but he gets to keep it." He tugged lightly on the collar. "He's gonna come back to Bobby's with us for a few days." He chuckled at the look in his brother's eyes. "Yeah, figured you'd wanna pick his brain a little. Hell, I've got some questions of my own for the guy. Ya know, like how he's two hundred and something years old, for starters. I really am kinda wondering about that."

Sam nodded. He cautiously inched onto his side, keeping hold of Dean's hand, and curled a little around his brother. "Don't go anywhere."

Dean watched Sam's eyes fall closed and leaned down to kiss his temple. "Never gonna happen. I've got you."

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_To Be Continued…_


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Info: An ancient evil surfaces and the Winchesters must rely only on each other in a town of unwitting killers where anyone or everyone could be out to get them. Set in season 2 Dean/Sam 11th in the 'BYC Verse'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: I'm so sorry for the long delay on this last chapter. Luckily for all of us, the plot was wrapped up in the last chapter and this one is just naughty icing on the cake. The delay was a combination of the two year anniversary of my mom's death (which I did not handle well and am still dealing with) and NaNoWriMo which I almost blew because of the anniversary. I ended up knocking out 22,000 words in the last 26 hours with literally ONE minute to spare when I checked in with the winning word count. Lol And a special shout-out to my girls who had to deal with me poking them on messenger once an hour that entire day with an update of my word count and for the support they gave me. Thanks, ladies. *huggles* I'm willing to bet most of those 22k words are absolute crap but that's for later. :P
> 
> Thank you, all of you, for bearing with me. Now, on to the naughty finale. :D I decided to save the reunion with Steve and Joe for the next story in the BYC verse. It just wouldn't fit comfortably at the end of this one and the ideas I and my beta have been batting around deserve more than being squished into a single chapter at the end of a story. Sorry, kids. The wait should be worth it. Lol 
> 
> Graphic depictions within. Beta'd by the always awesome JaniceC678
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own 'em but if I did, they'd never get dressed.
> 
> ~Reviews are love~

 

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" _Next few weeks are gonna suck for my libido."_

_Sam laughed and fisted a hand in his brother's shirt. "We'll figure something out. Where's Theo? His arm…"_

" _Gonna be fine." Dean smiled and absently played with the collar still around his brother's neck, relieved they hadn't taken it off of him. "Got a whole bunch of stitches, but you stopped the guy before he hit bone, so Theo's gonna be sore for a while, but he gets to keep it." He tugged lightly on the collar. "He's gonna come back to Bobby's with us for a few days." He chuckled at the look in his brother's eyes. "Yeah, figured you'd wanna pick his brain a little. Hell, I've got some questions of my own for the guy. Ya know, like how he's two hundred and something years old, for starters. I really am kinda wondering about that."_

_Sam nodded. He cautiously inched onto his side, keeping hold of Dean's hand, and curled a little around his brother. "Don't go anywhere."_

_Dean watched Sam's eyes fall closed and leaned down to kiss his temple. "Never gonna happen. I've got you."_

**Chapter 9**

Sam groaned long and loud as Dean and Theo lowered him down to the couch. He blew out a breath in relief once he was sitting and looked up to see both men watching him worriedly. "Guys, I'm fine. That just sucked a little."

Dean snorted and smiled. "Goin' soft on me, Sammy." He leaned back and gave Theo a nod of thanks for his help and then looked around their room at the Tybee. "Wow. Can't believe they fixed all this in four days." Both doors had been replaced, along with the broken window, and the mess cleaned. And Dean would be forever grateful that the chief of police had been one of those affected, assuring that there would be no awkward questions about the poor man who had died the night Theo had been taken.

Theo chuckled and sat in one of the armchairs across from Sam. "They seemed rather well-motivated." He pushed his hair out of his eyes with his good arm and cradled his bandaged wrist against his chest trying to ignore the ache from having it nearly sawed off. "They wouldn't let me help. The townsfolk have taken this whole thing remarkably well."

"We could have just gone on to Bobby's," Sam said and rolled his eyes when his brother glared at him. "I'm fine."

"You had an infection that jacked your temp up to three hundred. Your ribs are busted. It took two of us to haul your ass in here, and you think you can spend a day and a half squeezed into the car? Get real." Dean shook his head and straightened.

Sam blew out a breath and smiled. "Fine. You're right. Happy?"

"Ecstatic." Dean chuckled and lightly slapped the back of his brother's head. "I'm gonna go fill the tub so we can get that hospital stink off you."

Theo laughed, watching the boys fondly. He adjusted his aching arm on his chest and raised a brow as Dean returned to the room and gave him a strange look. "Dean?"

"So." Dean sat beside his brother. He slid an arm behind his shoulder to pull him closer and quirked a brow at Theo. "You gonna tell us how you look so good for a double-centenarian?"

Sam barked a laugh and slapped his brother's stomach. "Nice, Dean. Way to be subtle."

Theo chuckled as well and nodded. "I suppose I owe you an explanation. It's… well, you're going to laugh. You Americans have never really had to deal with the fae. In Europe, they're occasionally a menace but mostly harmless."

"You're fae?" Sam asked, surprised. "I thought they were all freaky, elf-looking assholes that stayed in Europe? At least that's what Bobby always says about them."

Theo raised his hands. "Only half, on my mother's side." He smirked. "My father said she was the most stunning woman he had ever seen; always followed by how he should have bloody well known better than to sleep with her."

Dean snorted an understanding laugh. "Yeah. Chicks that hot, there's always a catch. Usually it's hair in weird places."

"Dude." Sam rolled his eyes fondly.

Theo grinned, enjoying the easy banter between them. "My mother is not the maternal type, sadly. Once I was born, she left me with my father. It wasn't until I was sixteen that I met her." He shrugged. "I suppose she decided I was finally old enough to be interesting."

"That's cold, man." Dean sighed and glanced at Sam. He could not imagine not wanting his brother in his life for any reason.

"She's fae," Theo offered as explanation and he sighed again. "She offered to let me live with her among the fae, but it would have meant giving up my humanity." He smiled. "I rather like being human, even with my unnaturally long life span." He adjusted his wounded arm across his chest with a rueful laugh. "The lifespan is the only fae perk I've retained. This will heal human slow."

"Well, that kinda blows. She still around? Your mom?" Dean asked curiously.

"Oh, I suppose." Theo laughed softly. "Once a decade or so she finds me to ask if I've changed my mind. I doubt that I ever will." His expression darkened as he looked down at his arm. "As long as the homo cthulus threatens mankind, I'll stay to fight them. Someone must."

Sam leaned forward, careful of his injuries, until he could rest a hand on Theo's knee. "Thank you. We'd be…. Dean would be…" He swallowed hard around the lump of emotion in his throat. "I would have killed Dean if you hadn't been there." Sam didn't argue when Dean tugged him back and wrapped his arms around him. "We'd both be dead," he added softly and knew from Dean's flinch against him that he understood; Sam would have ended his own life as soon as he was able rather than live with the nightmare of being forced to end his brother's.

"Come'ere." Dean rested his forehead against Sam's, taking comfort in the scent of him, before looking over to the Theo's equally damp eyes. "Thanks, Theo."

Theo rubbed his good hand over his face briefly before giving Dean a solemn nod. "It was absolutely my pleasure."

Sam turned his face into Dean's neck to breathe in the comforting scents of Old Spice and gunpowder that never failed to ground him.

"Alright, Sammy?" Dean asked and cupped a tender hand around his brother's jaw, thumb tracing lightly over his chin.

"Yeah." Sam sniffed back his emotions and sat back again to smile reassuringly at his brother and then Theo. "I'm good."

Theo watched them together and sighed wistfully. He shook his head, smiling at both men. "I think I shall get on the road, as it were." He rose and held up his hand before they could protest. "I'm rather looking forward to seeing this library of Bobby's." He grinned. "And adding to it myself."

Sam chuckled as he got stiffly to his feet. He caught Theo's good arm and pulled him around the table. "Bobby's going to love that." He gave the man a warm hug, careful of both their injuries. "Call us if you need us."

"Hell, yeah." Dean waited for Sam to release Theo and gave the man a brief hug of his own with a fist thumped firmly into his back. "Call us even if you don't."

Theo blinked furiously for a moment to avoid awkward tears of affection for these two men who had so firmly wormed their way into his once-lonely life. He squeezed Sam's shoulder and cleared his throat. "I promise I'll keep in touch. I think I'd like to explore this country of yours more thoroughly. After all, it has been nearly a century since I came for a visit."

Dean laughed. "Bobby's makes a damn good home base for that." He smiled and knew without having to ask that Bobby would be making the same offer once Theo reached him. "Just, uh… make sure it's not chili night when you drop in."

Theo shook his head with a laugh. "Goodbye, boys. I'll be seeing you again soon."

Sam lowered himself back down to the couch while Dean saw Theo out. "I'm really going to miss him."

Dean nodded as he closed the door and returned to the couch. He looked down at his brother and the lines around his eyes that said 'pain'. "Bath time, Sammy. See if we can't unkink some of those muscles, huh?"

Sam groaned but held up an arm for help getting back to his feet. "I want the hospital stink off of me."

"Easy." Dean steadied him as Sam reached his feet and hunched over in pain. "I gotcha." He kept a hold of Sam's arm and steered him slowly into the bathroom. "I'll rebandage everything after you get out."

Sam smiled after Dean turned off the taps in the now filled tub and turned to help him remove his shirt. "You could get in there with me." He nodded to the brass, clawed tub and waggled his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh, I'm gonna." Dean chuckled. "But I don't think your ribs are up to water sports."

Sam snorted and shoved his jeans and shorts down his legs, stepping out of them with a hand braced on his brother's shoulder. "Wanna bet?" He ran his fingers over the elephant hair collar and loved the way Dean's bottle-green eyes darkened with 'want'.

"Get in the damn tub already," Dean ordered with a laugh. He stripped his own clothes off while Sam stepped into the steaming water with a long, sensuous moan of pleasure. "Well, that sounded fuckin' dirty, dude."

Sam laughed and let Dean help him sit in the water. He scooted forward to make room for his brother behind him and closed his eyes in bliss. The heat sank into his aching body, and he hummed wordlessly as Dean pulled him back against his chest, legs stretched to either side of him and cradling him from the sides of the tub. He loosed a happy groan while Dean curled the fingers of one hand in the front of his collar and the other spread across his chest, over his heart. "I'm alright, Dean."

Dean nodded against the back of Sam's shoulder with his eyes closed. The steady thump of his brother's soft heart beneath his palm soothed the last raw edges of his nerves, and he let out a long, slow breath of his own. "This job freaked me out," Dean admitted, muttering the words into Sam's skin. He rolled his face along the sweat-damp flesh until he could rest his lips against his throat.

Sam turned his head with the rare, truthful admission of fear from Dean. He kissed his temple. "Me too." He tipped his head back when he felt his brother's teeth graze the skin beneath his collar. "Don't think I ever wanna hunt one of these things again if we can help it."

"Agreed." Dean slid his hand from Sam's heart down his chest. He'd fully intended to just sit with his brother and let him soak the aches out, but he had a sudden need to hear him gasping and feel him closed tight around him. "Sammy."

"Yeah." Sam turned enough so that he could catch Dean's lips with his own and gasped as his brother's hand grasped firmly around his cock beneath the water.

Dean stroked Sam's cock in a slow glide as he kissed him. He gnawed on Sam's bottom lip, tugging it between his teeth until his brother whined into his mouth. "Gonna make you come, little brother." He licked over Sam's bottom lip and sped up his hand on his cock.

"Fuck, Dean," Sam panted into his brother's mouth. He tossed his head back as Dean took a firmer hold on the collar and tugged his head back. "Want…"

"What do you want?" Dean caught Sam's legs under his own, holding his hips from thrusting in the water while he squeezed his cock hard enough he knew it had to be bordering on painful. It only seemed to drive Sam wilder. His head thrashed on Dean's shoulder.

"Want you in me." Sam moaned as his brother's hand pulled at his cock, as though Dean was demanding his orgasm from him.

Dean chuckled against Sam's throat. "Not yet." He sucked a mouthful of Sam's skin, pulling hard until he could almost taste the copper of his blood. He felt Sam's cock begin to jerk in his hand and his brother shouted, filling the room with sound. "That's it, baby boy. Come for me."

"Fuck. Fuck!" Sam's body shook, his back trying to arch with the strength of his orgasm, but Dean let go of his collar to wrap his arm across his chest, protecting his ribs.

Dean stroked Sam through his orgasm and held him down as he fell apart. Water sloshed up the sides of the tub, and he smiled against his brother's temple as Sam finally began to subside and slumped against him. He loosened his hold and let go of Sam's cock, rubbing his hands up and down his heaving chest soothingly. "Hey, little brother. You still with me?"

Sam groaned and then began to chuckle, feeling a little high. "I'm awesome."

Dean chuckled. He smoothed Sam's hair back from his face and pulled his head around to kiss him softly. "How those muscles feelin' now?"

Sam snickered and settled more heavily back into his brother. "What muscles?"

"Yeah, you're feelin' better." Dean snorted a laugh.

Sam shifted his hips, rubbing against his brother's still hard cock with a smile. "I can take care of that."

"Oh, you're gonna." Dean gave him another kiss and nudged him forward to make room for himself. "Soon as I get you outta here."

Sam laughed softly as Dean slid out from behind him and left the tub. He leaned back, letting the water rise up his chest and rested his head on the back of the tub. He turned his head and smiled, watching Dean towel off and the bob of his dick. He licked his lips, wanting to get his mouth around it. "You know, you're kinda hot."

Dean laughed. "And you're still kinda high on hospital drugs and one awesome orgasm. Come on." He gently eased his brother up out of the water and smiled, seeing that he was moving better than he had been when he had gone in, the lines of pain having vanished from around his eyes.

Sam hitched himself up onto the bathroom counter and sat comfortably, humming through his brother's ministrations while Dean dried him off, rebandaged his cuts, and made sure his injuries were still healing nicely. He snorted a laugh when Dean leaned in and placed a loud, smacking kiss on his bruised knee. "You're ridiculous."

"Your face is ridiculous." Dean grinned and pulled him off the counter, leading him out of the bathroom. "And I don't recall you complainin' about me kissin' your boo-boos when we were growing up."

"That's because I was five, you idiot." Sam laughed as he pressed up against his brother's back in the living room, savoring the feeling of their naked bodies together. He slid his hands around Dean's hips to cup his once again lengthening cock in his hands. "Not done with me yet, I hope."

Dean chuckled. He turned in his brother's arms, sliding his own around his back. "Not even close."

Sam shivered with Dean's nails scraping lightly down his back and ducked his head for a kiss while Dean turned him and walked him backwards. "What'd you have in mind?" he asked, a little breathlessly.

Dean backed Sam up to the sturdy pillar in the center of the room. "You stay right here." He tucked Sam's hands back to hold the sides of the pillar. He wanted them over his brother's head to stretch that glorious chest out for him, but he knew, regardless of what Sam would say or how much he would willingly endure for Dean if that's what he wanted, that his ribs weren't up for that. "Hands stay here."

Sam met his brother's quirked eyebrow, a silent question if he was alright with that, with a wide smile and a solemn nod of his head. "Yes, Dean."

Dean chuckled and leaned in to slide his lips against brother's. "So fuckin' eager for me, little brother." He grinned as Sam shivered. "Love that." He nipped Sam's bottom lip between his teeth and started a slow slide to his knees. "Love you."

Sam put his head back against the pillar with a thump and groaned as Dean's tongue pressed and slid against his cock. He tipped his head forward to look down and moaned, watching his big brother mouth his cock, rubbing his lips up and down his length. "Fuck, I love your mouth."

Dean smiled against his brother's skin and reached out to the bag he'd left on the table. He easily found the bottle of lube he had left in the pocket. "Wanna hear you screamin' and beggin', Sammy."

"Please. Please," Sam moaned and nodded as Dean picked up his left leg, resting it over his shoulder as Dean knelt before him. He curled his fingers more tightly around the pillar, leaning in to it for support with the first brush of Dean's fingers between his legs.

Dean slid a slick finger into his brother, savoring the deep moan Sam gave him. "Wish I could tie you up." Dean quickly added a second finger, thrusting up into him, grazing Sam's prostate. He loved the feel of those tight muscles clenching around his fingers and couldn't wait to feel them around his cock. "Wanna get you on stage again with our boys." He grinned as Sam flat-out whined. "Yeah, you like that. Tied down. Spread open for everyone to watch." Dean ran a hand over his own aching length while Sam moaned and trembled, hips jerking in time with the thrust of Dean's fingers inside him. "See how many times we can get you close without letting you come."

"Fuck, Dean!" Sam gasped as his brother added a third finger, pumping them up into him like it was his dick. That, combined with the visual his brother had put in his head, had him deliciously close to coming. "Dean, please! Need you now. Need you in me!"

"I gotcha, Sammy." Dean pulled his fingers out and ran them over his own cock. He got to his feet, keeping hold of Sam's left leg and catching the other as he rose. "I gotcha." He lifted his brother with a grunt of effort, keeping Sam's back planted against the pillar, and smiled as Sam wrapped his long legs around his hips. "Hold on to me."

Sam let go of the pillar and slid his hands over the muscles of Dean's shoulders. It never failed to drive him wild that Dean could do this, pick him up and use him so effortlessly. He felt Dean's cock against his hole and dropped his mouth to his brother's. "Yes. Yes. Come on. Fuck me."

"Fuck, Sammy," Dean groaned and let Sam's hips drop just enough to thrust inside him. He attacked Sam's mouth, kissing and licking along his teeth with the first clench of his muscles around him and shuddered. "Not gonna last."

Sam gave a breathless laugh, nodding. "Yeah. Been too long." He moaned, feeling Dean's hands slide beneath him, his fingers pressing against where they were joined. "Too many days." He loved the feeling of Dean inside him, so big and hard forcing him open. His whole body shivered with the sensation as Dean's cock rested against his sweet spot. "Fuck me, big brother."

Dean shouted with Sam's words. He pulled out and slammed back inside him, forcing a near scream from Sam. He leaned in and bit Sam's throat just above the collar, sucking his flesh into his mouth as he thrust into him again and again. Sam's nails dug into the backs of his shoulders and drove him on.

"Ah, God! Dean!" Sam's shivers became stronger, making his entire body quake with sensation. The pain of his brother's mouth pulling at his throat drove another cry out of him as Dean's fingers pulled at his hole, opening him even more.

Dean pulled his head back with a gasp and widened his stance. He pounded up into Sam over and over. "Come on… little brother. Come for me." He felt Sam's body tense like a bow string just for a moment, and then Sam was howling up to the ceiling while his cock twitched between their bodies, splashing his release up their chests. Dean growled with the effort of holding on to his brother and thrust home one last time as he came, filling him up.

Sam collapsed in to his brother as the strength of his orgasm came close to knocking him out. Distantly, he felt his legs drop, felt Dean's hands sliding up his back while his cock slipped out of him in a wet glide that made him shiver.

Dean's own legs were weak, and he brought Sam down with him to the floor, stretching them both out on the thick, pile rug. "Sammy," he whispered in his brother's ear as he cradled him in his arms. He got a low hum in response and chuckled. He shivered, feeling the sweat cooling on his body and ran a thumb over the deep red mark he had left on Sam's neck. That earned him a shudder from his brother. "Comin' back to me?"

Sam hummed again and turned his head to brush his lips over the stubble of Dean's jaw. "No."

Dean laughed and rested a hand over Sam's ribs. "Didn't hurt you, did I?"

Sam chuckled, wrapping one of his legs over his brother's. "I am feeling _no_ pain, dude. That was awesome."

"Hell, yeah." Dean grinned and shifted Sam so he was resting firmly against his side, bracing his damaged ribs while Sam's head came to rest on his chest, over his heart. "Love you, little brother."

"Love you." Sam convinced his tired eyes to open and lifted his head to look at his brother. He brought a hand up and ran his fingers lightly over Dean's cheek. "M'really glad Theo showed up when he did," he whispered, looking deeply into the bottle-green eyes he loved so much and could not help remembering how close he had come to destroying them forever.

"Hey, none of that." Dean pulled Sam's head down and kissed him deeply until his brother sighed, relaxing against him again. "We're ok."

"Yeah." Sam smiled against his brother's lips. "We always are."

"Damn right." Dean wrapped his arms around him, holding him close. He didn't care that they were a sticky mess and the thought that he'd have to drag his brother into the shower to clean off made him smirk, wondering if the shower head was detachable.

"Can feel you smiling," Sam said into his brother's chest with a laugh.

Dean snorted a laugh. "Just thinkin' ahead, Sammy."

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_The End._


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